


Five Stars

by Mazauric



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Blood Kink, Cannibalism, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Dismemberment, Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Knifeplay, M/M, Orgies, Possessive!Hyunjin, Questionable Politics, Recreational Drug Use, meathooks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-10 08:06:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 51,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27589957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mazauric/pseuds/Mazauric
Summary: Yang Jeongin finds himself neck deep in shit he is not prepared to handle when he is abruptly placed in deep undercover. At the heart of a series of disappearances is God's Menu, a restaurant based in Busan and run by powerful businessman Bang Chan.The more Jeongin looks into the restaurant and it's connection to the disappearances, the closer he gets to the staff, the more he wishes he was never born.Welcome to God's Menu.
Relationships: Han Jisung | Han/Lee Minho | Lee Know, Hwang Hyunjin/Yang Jeongin | I.N
Comments: 88
Kudos: 254





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A note for the adventurous reader: Please pay attention to the tags. There will be more tags added later as this story progresses but please pay attention to the warnings.

[ ](https://ibb.co/J2mQpPB)

There comes a point in life where one has to stop, stare ahead and calculate every single choice they’d made to put them exactly where they are now. For Yang Jeongin, the root of his problem, the fork in the road that split his life between ‘semi-ok’ and ‘completely and utterly fucked’ came in the form of Bang Chan.  
  
He can pinpoint the exact moment it happened too. The moment he saw a picture of him, blurry, taken of a CTV shot and he'd somehow agreed to a mission he was never going to be prepared for.  
  
“I need your arms, Jeongin.”  
  
Looking up, the room around Jeongin sharpens and clears. He can see the clean white walls, smell the over-sterilized scent of the ward and before him, the nurse watches him closely. There’s a white material in her hands, the sleeves are ready for him and it takes his mind longer than it should to realise what it is.  
  
“N-no…”  
  
“Jeongin,” the nurse pleads. “Please, cooperate with me.”  
  
Jeongin’s legs push him back but he hits the wall behind him. His entire body feels cold and he can’t stop shivering.  
  
A straightjacket. She’s trying to put him in a straightjacket.  
  
He sees the doors behind her open, the security guards walk in and Jeongin barely has enough time to whimper before they grab him and force his arms into the sleeves.  
  
“No, no!” he sobs as the nurse uses a surprising amount of strength to push his arms around and tie the sleeves at the back. “No please!”  
  
Then comes the muzzle. Jeongin cries, he tries to rip his head out of the way but when the guards grab him, the nurse fixes the muzzle to his face and pulls the belt a little tighter than it needs to be.  
  
He wants to scream, to thrash himself out of the restraints and run but when they hold him still, he sees the flicker of a needle, just a split second before the prick hits the back of his neck. He squeaks, the drug hits him before he has a real chance to register what it is, where he is and why.  
  
They leave him in a padded room, lock the door, close the window and they would throw away the key if they could.  
  
Because Yang Jeongin is a clinically verified psychotic murderer.  
  
-  
  
 **2 Years Earlier**  
  
Jeongin never liked the chief’s office. When he was younger, it was because he was here to get the scolding of a lifetime. Now as a (near) adult, it was because he was here to get the scolding of a lifetime - professionally.  
  
When his father learnt of the birth of his son shortly after his return from mandatory enlistment, he’d dreamt of a boy who would grow to be a man. A man like him. Unafraid to take chances, hard, disciplined and above all, a man who would hold the same ideals and moralistic values as his own.  
  
What he got was Jeongin. Sweet, introverted, stuttery little Jeongin who was so painfully shy he never made many friends. A boy who wouldn’t last one second in the world his father had hoped for him. Not for lack of trying either, his father tried so hard. He got Jeongin to join him on patrol (sit in the back of the cop car and watch his father in action - which actually ended in panic attacks because Jeongin hated seeing violence). He tried to get Jeongin to do sports, help him fix cars - when Jeongin was 16, he set him up on a date with the daughter of his work colleague.  
  
It didn’t end well, in fact the girl ended up talking the entire night and Jeongin spent a good three hours wishing he was home in bed.  
  
His mother had other plans. Jeongin was sweet, shy, beautiful and she signed him up for modelling opportunities even though his father protested. They liked Jeongin’s sweet disposition, how he’d smile meekly at the camera. They liked how he always showed more concern for the other models and photographers on set than for himself.  
  
Neither parent bothered to ask what Jeongin wanted for himself. Mind you, even if they had asked, he wouldn’t have known what to tell them. He never had a dream for himself, a hobby, something he wanted to pursue.  
  
Perhaps this is why his father won when he sent Jeongin off to police training camp early to get him to follow in his footsteps.  
  
Now here he was, an undergraduate, nineteen year old cop-to-be, sitting here once again and waiting for his father to waltz in and tell him what he did wrong this time.  
  
The door opens and Jeongin’s spine automatically stiffens as he stands to greet the chief - his father. The man barely acknowledges Jeongin as he walks in and takes a seat at his desk.  
  
“Sit.”  
  
Jeongin obeys without a word. He won’t ever relax in the presence of his father and he never has been able to. His mind tries to think through anything that might have warranted a verbal bashing but honestly, he hasn’t stepped a toe out of line recently. He’s been good. Even his physical, mental and emotional testing scores have come back excellent so for once, he’s a little confused about why he’s here.  
  
Then his father presses a button and the blinds on the windows close with a quiet metallic groan and Jeongin’s stomach drops.  
  
Shit.  
  
“Something has come up,” his father says and Jeongin hates that tone. “I’m sure you’re aware of our ongoing investigation into the Busan Disappearances?”  
  
Jeongin nods. Only someone living in a cave would be unaware of that particular shitshow. Five years ago, people started going missing. Not the usual kind of people, not the usual amount either. This was a lot of people, more than the police were permitted to ignore, with missing persons cases slapped onto the walls of the train stations.  
  
No trace, low-risk citizens, no history with anyone who could possibly want to hurt them, no witnesses and no suspects either. A clean sweep. People were just disappearing and there was nothing to be done about it, not even a breadcrumb to go off of. Public dissatisfaction with the local investigation teams turned ugly quick and it soon became a nationwide problem rather than simply a local one.  
  
But five years had passed and despite millions of thousands of police resources looking into every single kidnapping (of which, as of five years ago, had expanded exponentially and now scraped across not only Busan but also Seoul, Daegu, Incheon and even three weird disappearances in Jeju Island.) nothing came up. No clues, no nothing.  
  
So the police, who were by now scratching their heads in frustration, began trying to look at it differently. Investigations stopped, strangely enough, at a chain of restaurants that popped up in all five cities around the same time as the murders.  
  
The name? God's Menu.  
  
Looking into it was like opening Pandora’s Box. The establishments were run by the son of the current Prime Minister and that alone was like hitting a mine that could explode at any moment. But what really made this restaurant interesting was the fact that it’s moderate success by no means merited the name.  
  
Their menu is not outstanding, the customer base is not amazing and yet it managed four more restaurants and none of them hurt for money. Stranger still was the list of staff in the Busan branch in particular, the first restaurant and the one where the CEO, Christopher Bang, visited most. When the police looked into them, they hit roadblocks. Bureaucratic roadblocks that stopped them in their tracks and more political nudges to stop warrants.  
  
Needless to say, the police knew when something stank and God's Menu absolutely reeked.  
  
“We had a deep undercover agent in the Busan branch of God's Menu,” the chief says after a moment of checking to make sure his office is secure. “He’s dead.”  
  
Jeongin blinks at him and waits for him to go on.  
  
“Official ruling from the coroner is an accident involving a gas cylinder,” the chief huffs. “But my gut calls bullshit. What we’ve been able to figure out is that Christopher Bang has fingers everywhere, including in our own force. We don’t know who to trust, who not to trust and it’s not out of the realm of possibilities that he could have some coroners in his pocket as well. He can spin it however he likes and if he found out our agent was a cop...well…”  
  
Jeongin stares at him and he can feel his fingertips growing cold with the growing realisation that his father is driving to a point here and it’s one to do with him.  
  
“His reports, before his death, have proven that something strange is going on with God's Menu but he needed longer to figure that out,” the chief sighs heavily and finally turns his eyes on his son. “That’s where you come in.”  
  
“Wait, wait,” Jeongin pales and holds his hand up. His father looks surprised that he’d even spoken up but Jeongin knows where this is going and this is the last thing he wants. “I’m still an undergrad, I’m not even a cop yet!”  
  
“Exactly,” his father rebuts. “Your name is not anywhere in the system, no one knows you and our relationship as father and son is a well kept secret.”  
  
In hindsight, Jeongin will wonder if he should be more hurt that his father went to great lengths to make sure no one knew he was his son but in the long run he will figure it was probably for the best.  
  
“I am nowhere near ready or capable of the job you’re offering,” Jeongin manages, his voice steady albeit terrified as he faces his father properly. “I’m not, I’ll just get killed like your last agent.”  
  
“You won’t,” his father promises. “Because you are exactly what all the other agents were not. You are inexperienced and extremely young. If Christopher Bang is expecting an undercover cop, you are the last thing he will be looking for. We need that.”  
  
Jeongin still shakes his head. He’s trying to stop his body shaking as well but he can’t help it. He’s terrified. The job is suicide and he’s weaker than a lamb being shipped off to slaughter.  
  
“You will of course be trained,” his father continues as though he’s already said yes. “Your firearms record isn’t as great as I’d like it to be but you are intelligent. Your test scores for mental aptitude are well above average - that will help.”  
  
“Father please,” Jeongin pleads. “I can’t do this.”  
  
“You’ll need to learn how to cook,” his father continues as though he hasn’t heard him. “It’s a restaurant after all.”  
  
Jeongin isn’t exactly sure how his father manages to strongarm him into actually agreeing to the suicide job but he’s immediately pulled out of his studies and shoved into intensive training. They shove a gun in his hand and tell him to shoot the targets, they test him on his knowledge of poisons, psychological situations. They send him to classes for English, French and Japanese and they teach him how to cook.  
  
Jeongin’s days turn to long, grueling 5am to 10pm days of nothing but endless training in various fields.  
  
Perhaps the only good part of the training is his main tutor - a hardened, longtime cop named Nishimoto Toya. Japanese-Korean, rather difficult to understand and yet a lot of what he said made perfect sense to Jeongin. He’s one of those rare people who think before they speak - the result of which is everything Toya says, makes perfect sense. Sharp, straight and to the point - blunt to a fault but Jeongin found he liked that quality.  
  
Although Jeongin is shipped off to many different people for different kinds of training, Toya is his main trainer. It’s him who teaches Jeongin how to shoot a gun properly, how to arm himself, how to watch for hazards in a potentially dangerous area - even first aid.  
  
“Gotta learn when a wound is gonna kill ya and when it ain’t,” Toya huffs at him, thick Osaka accent toying with his Korean and making him a little difficult to understand. “No student of mine is gonna make the dumb mistake of ignoring a wound that’ll kill him slowly. Now stitch this cut properly and don’t forget the gauze.”  
  
It takes six months and when he’s nowhere near mentally ready enough, they ship him off to Busan with his mission drilled so far into his brain it might as well be tattooed on his forehead: Get into Five Star. Get close to the staff and personnel. Especially Christopher Bang.  
  
-  
  
Deep undercover means no ties at all. Not to the police, not to his parents, no one. When Jeongin steps out onto Busan soil for the first time, he takes a deep breath. Somehow, despite being a city just like Seoul, the air smells different here. A little more salty, perhaps. Closer to the sea. Reminds him of his school trip to Jeju Island when he was ten.  
  
On the train, he runs over his backstory once again. Seoul roots, here to stay with a sick grandmother in Busan and out to earn money in the meantime. It’s solid enough and the grandmother he’s staying with is at least incapable of giving him away.  
  
She’s actually the grandmother of one of the officers in the hacking agency. According to him, her memory is so shot that she’s not going to remember her real grandson, let alone the fake one that will be living with her. Alzheimer's. No one will think twice if she says she doesn’t know him.  
  
Of course that doesn’t mean that the thought of any of this doesn’t put Jeongin at least a little on edge. When the train rolls to his stop, he gets off and makes the twenty minute walk to the two story house as directed on his phone. He stops in front of the gates, looking over the tiny garden in the front lawn. The quaint collection of pretty gemstones lining along the path to the steps leading to the front door.  
  
It’s a beautiful house. Old, worn down with time but well cared for.  
  
Sitting on the deck chair just left of the door is someone he can only assume is Yang Minji. She’s sitting hunched over a little, long white hair tied back into a single ponytail. She’s wearing a long, grey dress and Jeongin can see her slippers peeking out from under the hem. There’s a vacant look in her eye and it doesn’t disappear even as Jeongin approaches her.  
  
“Is that you, Minnie?” she asks when he’s close enough. She cranes her head up to look over him and he can see her confusion for a few moments as she tries to figure out what to make of him.  
  
“Hello,” Jeongin bows politely. “I’m Jeongin, I’ll be staying with you for awhile.”  
  
Minji looks confused but there’s something that clicks because she finally stands and pulls him into a hug.  
  
“I missed you, Minnie,” she tells him as she takes his hand and leads him inside. “I always told them, you know, that you’d visit. I was right, see? I was right.”  
  
Jeongin has to wonder how severe her Alzheimer's is that she can’t even recognise that the person she’s talking to is not her grandson or ‘Minnie’ at all. He’d been told ‘middle stage’ whatever that meant and he has to wonder if it’s also a bit of dementia going on there too. She really doesn’t seem aware that he’s a complete stranger and it only puts Jeongin even more on edge.  
  
The inside of the house smells of cat piss. The carpet is old, well worn and suspiciously dark in some areas. Jeongin spots a few cats in the living room. One brushes against his leg when he nears the stairs and he almost trips over it.  
  
“I told you, I told you,” Minji keeps saying and at first, Jeongin has no idea who she’s talking to. It’s not until she looks down that he realises she’s talking to the cats. “I told you my Minnie would come back to me!”  
  
As evening sets in, Jeongin sets himself up in ‘Minnie’s’ bedroom. It’s a small little room with a single bed, a closet, desk and a window overlooking the street and front yard of the house. Jeongin sees the street lights turn on as darkness sets in and he can hear Minji banging around in the kitchen downstairs.  
  
He comes down and finds her there, humming to herself as she sets a large pot on the kitchen table.  
  
“Minnie, sit,” she tells him. “I’m just making dinner.”  
  
“Let me help,” Jeongin offers as he steps forward and takes the pot with an awkward smile. “Actually, please let me cook for you. I’ve been away so long.”  
  
“Minnie, you can cook?” Minji breathes, absolutely astonished. She lets go easily enough and settles at the table to watch him. “Okay.”  
  
Jeongin takes a look through her refrigerator and freezer. He takes out any food beyond its use-by date and whips up a bowl of bulgogi through what’s left. It’s not his best work but Minji seems perfectly happy with the dish, praising ‘Minnie’ the whole way through and happily eating two bowls by herself.  
  
Jeongin sees her off to bed and when he’s sure she’s unconscious, he heads to his room and sets up his laptop on the desk.  
  
The first task is getting a foot in God's Menu and with the last agent, that’s not going to be easy. If nothing else, Bang Chan is going to be wary of potential spies even when he’s short one staff member. Jeongin looks over the website for the restaurant and bites his lip.  
  
His father had told him his age worked for him. Chan was going to be expecting someone older, at least old enough to be a trained spy. Jeongin wasn’t old enough to be a graduated officer, let alone one undercover. But then his age was going to work against him too. God's Menu isn’t exactly a high class restaurant but as a self respecting restaurant, they are going to be looking for someone experienced enough to work with them.  
  
What Jeongin has going for him is several intensive cooking classes. At least, on paper he does.  
  
Still, he needs one way in and if Chan isn’t going to advertise an open position to avoid another spy, then Jeongin needs another way in.  
  
Pulling a folder from his suitcase, he lays it out on his bed. Files of the staff working in the Busan branch. Their faces are clipped to the top left corner of their file, all staring up at him. Two mugshots, school photos and CTV shots, the police had pulled up whatever they could.  
  
Jeongin spends a moment pouring over the files, learning as much as he can about each and every single one. If he wants an introduction, the logical choices would be the two closest to Chan - Jisung and Changbin. Unfortunately, both of them have criminal records. Mugshots taken from years back when they were pulled up for vandalism, drug dealing and reckless driving charges.  
  
Both are going to be extremely suspicious of anyone approaching them too, they’re not safe options.  
  
His eyes flick to Hyunjin and he has to cross that option out before he can even entertain it. Hyunjin’s beautiful face stares up at him, an old shot from school but Jeongin already knows the boy is going to be suspicious the moment he says hello. With a history of domestic abuse from his father, Hyunjin’s trust isn’t going to be easily gained.  
  
Seungmin is out as well. Of all the staff members, Seungmin was the hardest to find. What they could find wasn’t very encouraging. From what Jeongin can gather, the other doesn’t go out of his way to meet new people so he’d find Jeongin suspicious right away.  
  
Easy choices would be either Minho or Felix. Both of whom meet new people every day and don’t think twice about it. Felix is a known member of a group of foreigners who meet up once a week with locals to practice Korean and Minho is a member of a ‘cat society’ (Jeongin honestly had no idea that was a thing until he looked it up) basically a group of people who own cats and meet up with their cats.  
  
Singling the two out, Jeongin lays their files side by side and looks over them. He doesn’t have a cat so Felix is going to be the easiest. It helps that he’s Australian - just like Chan - so chances are he’s closer than Minho. But Minho is the one who was caught on CTV more often than the others (aside from Jisung and Changbin) if he’s going to get close to Chan, Minho is the most logical and guaranteed choice.  
  
Groaning to himself, Jeongin takes a deep breath and looks over the two in front of him.  
  
Eventually he just closes his eyes, hovers his finger over the photos and slams his index finger down. When he opens his eyes, Minho’s picture is a little crinkled where his finger stabbed the middle.  
  
“Okay,” he sighs. “Guess I better get a cat.”  
  
-  
  
The tortoiseshell kitten squirms in his arms as he walks into the room. _‘Meow Society’_ is not a place Jeongin ever thought he’d walk into and yet here he is, with a kitten that is digging her claws into his wrists.  
  
There are more people here than he thought there would be. Jeongin holds his kitten to his chest and looks around. There are little bowls lined along the wall, cat food bags on the table with notes marking out the different flavours and what age they’re appropriate for. There are some cats wandering around freely and others - like Jeongin - still keeping theirs close.  
  
A woman with dark hair tied into a tight ponytail approaches him with an unnaturally large smile and a fluffy grey cat that looks more pissed off than anything else.  
  
“You’re new,” she says. “Never seen you around here before.”  
  
“I just moved here from Seoul,” Jeongin replies and tries not to wince when the cat scratches at his arm. “This is Onyx.”  
  
“Onyx, nice name,” the woman beams and holds up her grumpy cat. “This is Mr. Happy.”  
  
Jeongin blinks at the narrowed eyes of the cat, the growl it lets out as she holds it up away from her chest. It looks anything but happy.  
  
“So,” he carries on. “What do we do here? I’m new and I thought I might benefit from some friends in the area but...admittedly I’m out of my element.”  
  
“Well cats are very social creatures,” the woman explains happily. “It’s good for them to meet with other cats and play with them. That’s what this society is for. Plus it’s nice finding like minded people, people who are just as crazy about cats as you are.”  
  
Jeongin looks up when he notices Minho coming in through the door. He has three cats somehow bundled in his arm. Each cat has a different coloured jewel collar and unlike Jeongin’s own cat, they seem quite content to snuggle into Minho’s chest.  
  
The more Jeongin stares, the more he realises that Minho himself has feline features. The shape of his eyes and face, even the graceful way he carries himself. If he jumped off a building, he’d probably land perfectly on his feet.  
  
Minho sets his cats down on the floor and they seem to know the drill right away. They skitter off towards the bowls and Minho greets some people on his way towards the water dispenser in the corner.  
  
Just as Jeongin is trying to think of a way to approach him, the woman he was talking to suddenly calls for him.  
  
“Minho!” she chirps happily. “We have a newbie!”  
  
Minho looks up, he abandons the water and glides over. The closer he gets, the more cat-like he appears. Absurdly long legs, his boots shine and he’s wearing a light blue sweater covered in cat hair. Jeongin can’t help but stare a little. The police CTV shots did him no justice, he’s majestic.  
  
“Hello,” Minho smiles. “Never seen you around here.”  
  
“He’s from Seoul,” the woman helpfully adds with a large grin. “Just like you!”  
  
A wry grin paints Minho’s features. “I’m from Gimpo, noona,” he corrects gently before turning to Jeongin properly. “Lee Minho, and you are?”  
  
“Yang Jeongin,” Jeongin replies automatically. “I just moved here. Me and…” he looks down at the kitten and Minho’s eyes flick down to it as well.  
  
“Tortoiseshell,” Minho comments as his hand reaches out to gently stroke the fur between its ears. Jeongin watches as the kitten immediately calms. Where it had been scratching and squirming against Jeongin, it immediately relaxes the second Minho touches it.  
  
“Her name is Onyx,” Jeongin says, he can’t help but smile. He’s happy the kitten isn’t scratching him anymore but it’s helpful that Minho warms immediately upon contact with the kitten.  
  
“Pretty name,” Minho comments and holds his arm out. “May I?”  
  
Jeongin gladly hands her over and she seems to want to go to Minho as well. She curls happily into his chest and mewls at him. Jeongin can practically see Minho melting as he looks over her.  
  
“Can’t be more than thirteen weeks old,” Minho comments, his nimble fingers gently moving the kitten around as he examines it. “Look at that fur though, glossy and beautiful, what are you feeding this thing?”  
  
“Just the normal cat meat,” Jeongin lies and tries to recall the last food he’d bought for it. He hadn’t really looked at it, just picked something off the shelf that looked vaguely appropriate. “She likes chicken.”  
  
“I’ll bet,” Minho chuckles and scratches behind Onyx’s ears.  
  
Jeongin watches and as he does, Toya’s words echo in his mind.  
  
 _“They’re dangerous. You gotta remember that, keep it in mind always. They’re dangerous. People go missing and we don’t find a trace, there’s gotta be something they’re doing to ‘em. Feeding their bones to pigs, vat of acid, you name it - I wouldn’t put it past ‘em. Especially that Christopher Bang. Nothing is beyond that one.”_  
  
“So what brings you to Busan?” Minho asks, a great deal warmer with Onyx in his arms. She’s purring happily and Jeongin can’t help but feel a little sour that she warmed to him immediately when she’d spent the last hour scratching him to pieces.  
  
“I’m looking after my grandmother,” he says with a bright smile. A carefully crafted backstory he’d said so many times the lie felt true even to him. “She’s too sick to go to Seoul, so I came to Busan to look after her myself.”  
  
“How kind,” the woman beside them says. Jeongin had almost forgotten she was there.  
  
“And...well...I don’t know anyone here,” Jeongin chuckles. “First step is moving in, second step is getting a job - wish me luck.”  
  
It’s bait. Just a little bait thrown out there but he notices something flick in Minho’s eyes. He doesn’t say anything, certainly doesn’t offer Jeongin a job right then and there but the bait is there and Jeongin quickly changes the subject when Onyx mewls.  
  
“I think she might be hungry,” he says and Minho gently hands her back to him. “I’ll go get her something to eat.”  
  
“Nice to meet you, Jeongin,” Minho smiles and once again Jeongin can’t help but notice how beautifully feline his features are. It’s strikingly pretty in the strangest way.  
  
“Nice to meet you too,” Jeongin says, somehow managing not to stutter as he walks away.  
  
He feels Minho’s eyes on the back of his head as he walks away.  
  
-  
  
There’s a spot on the ceiling. Minho’s been staring at it for the last twenty minutes and that’s not to say Jisung is doing a shit job, it’s just distracting.  
  
Minho’s hands are clutching Jisung’s back, nails digging in like claws and leaving red lines on sweaty skin as the other drives into him. As always, he feels amazing. Minho’s toes curl and everything but that spot, that fucking spot is very distracting that he finds himself staring up at it even though he should be paying more attention to Jisung.  
  
He hears the other groan in his ear and his body physically reacts when he finally feels himself cum. Relief floods his senses and for a moment, he can even close his eyes and just enjoy it.  
  
But then he opens them again and there’s that spot, a stain on the ceiling.  
  
Breathless, Jisung rolls off him and flops onto the bed to catch his breath. When he has enough energy left, Minho leans up to get a better look.  
  
“What’s that spot on the ceiling?”  
  
“The what?” Jisung pants, still quite out of it.  
  
“That,” Minho points to the little brown spot on the white ceiling. “That spot, what is that?”  
  
Jisung opens one eye, he follows Minho’s attention to the spot and shrugs. “Fucked if I know.”  
  
“It’s really distracting,” Minho comments as he gets up from the bed and throws his robe around himself.  
  
Jisung watches as Minho then stands on the bed and cranes his head up to get a closer look.  
  
“Minho. Baby?”  
  
“Mm?”  
  
“Were you staring at that spot the whole time I was fucking you?”  
  
“It’s really distracting.”  
  
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Jisung huffs. “Geez, you know how to pamper an ego.”  
  
Minho doesn’t answer and Jisung can’t be bothered to move as he watches the other scratch at the ceiling until a bit of the brown spot rubs off.  
  
“The fuck is this?”  
  
Minho seems quite determined as he hops off the bed and heads into the bathroom. Jisung watches as he comes back with a cloth and climbs back on the bed again to scrub at the ceiling.  
  
“It’s...ramen,” Minho gasps when he picks at a particularly stubborn piece. “Oh my fucking god, how the fuck did you get ramen on your ceiling?!”  
  
Jisung shrugs and tries to look innocent when Minho sends a scathing look down at him. He then scrubs at the rest of the blotch until it’s completely gone before coming down again to get rid of the cloth and climb back into bed.  
  
Jisung watches him. “...better?”  
  
“Much,” Minho sighs in contentment. “Honestly though, how did you manage that?”  
  
“Dunno, ask Chan,” Jisung yawns as he rolls into Minho’s side and curls his arm around his middle. “He’s the one who keeps sneaking food in my room when he stays over. Him and Binnie.”  
  
“You three are the worst when you’re together,” Minho huffs but he wraps an arm around Jisung’s shoulders and lets the other curl in as much as he likes. “How’s the restaurant anyway?”  
  
“What do you mean?”  
  
“Well, I’m not on staffing,” Minho reminds him. “And I’m not in the kitchen either but I hear a lot from Felix about how understaffed you lot are.”  
  
Jisung lets out along sigh and runs his hand through his hair. “Yeah, ever since that last guy turned out to be a fucking cop, Chan’s cut off the possibility of hiring someone to take his place. Especially so soon, says it’s too risky and the cops might just send another one in.”  
  
“What if we hire locally?” Minho suggests and Jisung, sensing he’s needling to a point, lifts his head to look at him properly.  
  
“Got someone in mind?”  
  
Minho nods. “Met a kid today, he just moved here from Seoul. He’s too young to be an undercover cop and...he did say he was looking for work.”  
  
Jisung still looks unconvinced and Minho adds: “He’s pretty cute too.”  
  
“Name?”  
  
“Yang Jeongin,”  
  
-  
  
“No.”  
  
“Chan-”  
  
“Fuck no.”  
  
“Chan, come on, I’m dying here,” Felix begs. “So the last guy turned out to be a cop, that doesn’t mean they’re lining at the door to send the next one in. Not after what we did to the last one!”  
  
Chan eyes him warily. When Jisung had asked for an afternoon meeting, he certainly hadn’t thought it would be to push the idea of a newbie onto him. He’d have expected such a move from Seungmin or Felix. Jisung isn’t particularly concerned if the restaurant is understaffed so this move had come indirectly from Minho - but still.  
  
“Guys, you’re killing me,” he says as he buries his face in his hands. Fingers tugging at the platinum blonde locks curtaining his forehead. “Look, the fact that we found a cop in here _at all_ is concerning. I knew they were onto this place before and that’s fine but they had someone in here.”  
  
“Minnie said the kid is too young to be an undercover anything, let alone a cop,” Jisung shrugs. “I’m not saying hire the kid - maybe he can’t even cook - but at least look into him.”  
  
“Please,” Felix begs again. “We are understaffed, Chan. Thanks to that asshole, I’m doing his job **and** mine and I need you to find me a replacement.”  
  
Chan groans loudly and finally lifts his head, hair now a mess thanks to his tugging. “Fine, fuck it, fine, I’ll get Changbin to look into him. But if he doesn’t check out, I reserve the right to say no.”  
  
“Fine, at least just look,” Felix sighs. “And if he doesn’t check out, then maybe we can find someone else. I just need someone to take the load off me.”  
  
“Yes, fine, yes, I’ll do it,” Chan promises. He smooths his hair down with a swipe of his hand and flicks at Felix, a silent sign that their conversation is over. Felix rolls his eyes but he leaves and when the door closes behind him, Jisung can’t help but grin.  
  
“Felix is the only one of your staff who would get away with rolling his eyes at you,” he comments as Chan picks up his phone and starts firing a message off to Changbin. “You’re too soft on him.”  
  
“Felix is different,” Chan mutters, his fingers tapping fast and when he’s done, he drops the phone back down onto his desk. “About the other guy…”  
  
“The guy who introduced the cop to us in the first place?” Jisung finishes with a nod. “He’s still in the freezer, still alive.”  
  
“Good,” Chan mutters, his eyes darkening as he slowly gets up from his chair. “Let’s pay him a visit, bring Hyunjin.”  
  
Where some restaurants in Busan are found in buildings that house other establishments, Gods Menu stands alone. A two story building located just a little out of the way of the main city, Gods Menu had been designed with an infinite budget courtesy of Chan. The entire building itself is modelled after greek architecture. Particularly that of the coliseums.  
  
The front is lined with Corinthian columns, the entire building itself circular in shape rather than the traditional square or rectangle. Inside, Chan had insisted on the unique design paying homage to the Greek gods carved into the walls, the tables and chairs scattered about rich red carpet. Despite it’s archaic design on the outside, the inside is decked with speakers, comfortable furniture, walls lined with aquariums and live fish swimming back and forth where they separate private tables.  
  
But the real heart of the restaurant lay in its basement. Accessible only through a trapdoor in the kitchen area where Jisung slowly lifts it and waits for Hyunjin and Chan to climb down.  
  
In the kitchen, Felix and Seungmin ignore the three and continue working even as Jisung closes the door behind them and follows them down into the cold area known as their freezer. It’s no rectangular ice box, but instead an entire room sealed with a large metal door that Jisung opens after tapping in the code to unlock it.  
  
The chill hits the three of them but none wince as they walk into the ice cold room and stare at the man hanging from the ceiling by his ankles.  
  
“Well fuck,” Hyunjin comments first as he reaches up to grab the man’s hair and tug a little. “Think Binnie went a little overboard.”  
  
“Fucker’s still alive, that’s all I care about,” Chan sniffs and nods to the chair in the back of the room. “Bring that over and pull him down. I wanna talk.”  
  
Hyunjin and Jisung do as he says without hesitation. The chair rattles noisily against the concrete floor as Hyunjin drags it in place whilst Jisung brings their prisoner down to the floor with a thump hard enough to wake him up.  
  
His name is Shinhwa and he’s easily twice their age but whatever Changbin did to him was enough to break him body and soul because the second he opens his eyes and realises where he is, he starts crying. Weak, rattling sobs even as Jisung pulls him up by his arms and drags him onto the chair for Hyunjin to tie him down.  
  
Chan waits patiently, hands deep in his pocket and he fights the itch to stick something in his mouth as the two finally step back and let Chan step forward so Shinhwa can see him.  
  
The second he does and his fried brain realises what Chan means, he sobs harder.  
  
“Oh don’t start on that,” Chan scolds. “Surely you knew this was coming the second you heard about your friend.”  
  
“I...I didn’t…”  
  
“One more lie and I’ll cut out your tongue,” Chan warns and to prove his point, he brings out a switchblade from his pocket. The click of the blade is enough to shut Shinhwa up.  
  
“Your mate,” Chan continues. “Baek Dongshin. You introduced him to us and on your recommendation, I hired him. Turns out he’s a fucking cop so-” his hand reaches out and Shinhwa screams as he snatches his hair and yanks his head back. “How long have you been working for the Feds?” he hisses. “Who else in my staff did you worm in here?”  
  
“I didn’t know! I didn’t know!” Shinhwa screams, his eyes staring at the blade as though fearful Chan will suddenly flick his eyes out. “I swear I didn’t know!”  
  
“Your mate folded easily,” Chan hisses, Australian accent tinging his words with anger as his grip on Shinhwa’s hair tightens. “I want names. A list. I want those fucking rats out of my restaurants and if you don’t have that for me in the next hour, the next premium dish in this restaurant will have your fucking name on it!”  
  
Shinhwa grunts as Chan lets him go roughly and stands straight to turn to Hyunjin. “If he doesn’t spit out at least one name by the end of the hour, run a blade through his Achilles.”  
  
-  
  
When Jeongin walks in with Onyx in his arms for the third meeting, he doesn’t expect Minho to rush straight for him. It’s been a comfortable six weeks already and he hadn’t mentioned job searching again after the first hint and he’s been quietly biding his time, coming to the fortnightly meetings and looking after Minji - who still has no idea who he is.  
  
Minho’s large, feline grin distracts him as he sets the kitten down and it toddles off towards the bowls on its own.  
  
“Jeongin,” Minho beams as he comes up to him. “What are you doing tomorrow?”  
  
“Nothing yet,” Jeongin smiles and he can’t help being a little nervous. “Why? What do you have in mind?”  
  
“Are you still looking for a job?” Minho asks hopefully. “Because there’s a restaurant I work for, God’s Menu, they’re looking. If you don’t mind a job interview?”  
  
Jeongin has to fight to hide his glee. He didn’t think it would be this easy but it landed in his lap. Patient waiting, six weeks of patient waiting since the first hint and here it is. A foot in the door.  
  
“I-I’d love to.”  
  
“Brilliant,” Minho beams. “I’ll text you the address and time.”  
  
He flutters off just as quickly as he’d approached and Jeongin feels a strange simultaneous buzz of excitement and absolute, mind-numbing fear.  
  
He’s in.  
  
 _Oh shit, he’s in._  
  
-  
  
The pictures and CTV footage of Gods’ Menu do not accurately capture the building in person. Standing before the columns, Jeongin’s eyes roam freely over the intricate carvings into stone, the polished marble of the entranceway floors and the gold lettering above the door with the chalkboard menu tastefully set beside the open doors.  
  
He feels he’s overdressed. A suit that, in the summer heat, feels unbearably stuffy. Minji commented wistfully that he looked just like his father - a comment that fell flat considering she still thinks he’s someone else. As he looks over the building, a tall, beautiful, blonde haired boy comes out from the building and walks towards him with a smile.  
  
Jeongin recognises him immediately from the photos. Hyunjin.  
  
“You must be Yang Jeongin,” Hyunjin says, coming to a stop right before him. “I’m Hyunjin, come around the backdoor, the interview room is there.”  
  
The photos didn’t do him justice. None of the photos did any of them any justice. Jeongin is, for a moment, completely thrown off guard by the effortless and striking attractiveness that is Hyunjin. The way he walks, the flick of his blonde locks tied back in a loose ponytail, the way the restaurant uniform fits him perfectly and yet the black silk never seems to touch his skin.  
  
Jeongin has to check he’s not drooling.  
  
They go around the restaurant to the back where Hyunjin pushes a heavy door open and leads Jeongin into what appears to be a little office room. There’s a single desk with a computer, files stacked along the walls and two chairs. Compared to the grandness that is the rest of the restaurant, this office falls woefully flat.  
  
Gesturing to the seat meant for guests, Hyunjin takes out a glass of water from the tray on one of the shelves and hands it to Jeongin.  
  
“You’ll be interviewed by Chan,” he tells him. “He’ll be here soon.”  
  
With that, he leaves and Jeongin quickly looks around the office. He can’t see any security cameras...not that he needs to do anything suspicious. Toya had told him to assume there were always cameras, always someone watching. Deep cover means never letting his guard down and he’s really feeling that now.  
  
He drains the water quickly and waits. His knee jiggles and he takes a deep breath in a fruitless attempt to calm himself.  
  
It’s only ten minutes but it feels like an hour before that door finally opens again and Chan himself walks in. Jeongin shoots up and before he can attempt a bow, Chan’s hands are already holding his shoulders.  
  
“No need for that, calm down,” Chan assures him with a small chuckle. He pats Jeongin’s shoulder and sits him back down. “I hate interviews too. Especially when they’re formal, adulting is hard enough without having to follow stupid rules. Just relax.”  
  
For a moment, all Jeongin can do is blink at him. That is the literal opposite of what he was expecting but nevertheless he tries to take a deep breath. He sits up in his chair and when Chan offers another glass of water, he takes it with a small mumble of thanks.  
  
Chan sits down opposite him. He looks over Jeongin for a moment and tilts his head. “Aren’t you hot in that?” he asks, pointing to the jacket. “It’s like 30 degrees outside, it’s boiling and you’re wearing a suit jacket.”  
  
Jeongin nods and Chan laughs. “Take it off, you must be dying in there.”  
  
Jeongin gladly takes the jacket off. His elbows and arms are doused in sweat but he feels better for the small rush of cool air. Especially when Chan brings out a tiny desk fan, points it at Jeongin and turns it on, he can’t help but groan in relief.  
  
Chan just laughs. “I haven’t done interviews in a while but you poor thing, you looked like you were boiling yourself. If you need to pop the first two buttons of your shirt open, I don’t mind. It’s fucking hot today.”  
  
Jeongin smiles shyly and sits up, he’s grateful for the fan and Chan’s approach is certainly doing it’s job to relax him but it’s not why he’s here.  
  
“So um,” he begins, a little shyly. “About the job?”  
  
“Oh right,” Chan says, as though he’d temporarily forgotten too. “So basically I need someone in the kitchens. Dishes, serving customers eventually - can you cook?”  
  
“Yes, I took intensive gourmet courses,” Jeongin replies. It’s on his resume but he explains anyway. “And baking, French and Italian cuisine too.”  
  
“Handy,” Chan comments with an impressed grin. “You’re so young too. Have you always liked to cook?”  
  
“Yeah,” Jeongin lies with ease. “Before she got sick, my grandmother taught me a lot and I learnt the rest on my own. Took courses in my free time.”  
  
Chan nods and Jeongin has never had a job interview but he imagines this part is probably normal. Gaging Chan’s thoughts is no easy feat. Maybe it’s nerves but he can’t tell if he’s said the right thing or the wrong thing.  
  
“Minho told me why you’re in Busan,” Chan continues. “Sick grandma?”  
  
“Alzheimer's,” Jeongin nods. “She can’t remember a lot of things these days, can’t leave her alone like that.”  
  
“But you’re so young,” Chan needles and clearly he’s looking for something but it puts Jeongin on edge. “Surely there’s someone else who can look after her? Your parents? A nursing home? If it’s that bad, maybe professional help is needed.”  
  
Jeongin blinks and Chan quickly adds: “I don’t mean to sound like I’m butting in your life but...kid you’re only nineteen. I think it’s admirable that you want to care for your grandmother but at nineteen I was doing things like going out with friends, thinking about university. Things like that.”  
  
To that, Jeongin can only shrug. “I don’t know what I want to study anyway.”  
  
For once, it’s not a lie. It’s the truth. Even if his father hadn’t chosen this course for him, he wouldn’t have known what he would have studied or even if he would have studied at all. Perhaps he’d have travelled overseas, maybe he’d have worked odd part time jobs. He doesn’t often think of what he could have done had his father not pushed him into the life he had but every now and then, Jeongin does wonder and it shows in his eyes that it’s the truth because for the first time, Chan’s smile is genuine.  
  
“That’s fine too,” Chan says, his tone a lot softer. “Not everyone needs to study. Not everyone has a dream either.”  
  
Jeongin wonders what his life would have been like now if someone had told his father that.  
  
The door opens. Sunshine floods into the room and Jeongin has just enough time to look up and see another he recognises from the CTV pictures. Felix. He’s dressed in uniform and carrying a small plate of what appears to be some sort of meat with a yellow sauce, topped with parsley. The sauce nearly decorates the lining of the plate, it’s almost artful.  
  
“Ah, last part of the interview,” Chan chirps as Felix gently hands Jeongin the plate with a knife and fork. He smiles before leaving the room again.  
  
“A...snack?” Jeongin asks, a little confused. The meat smells rather nice, almost well done meat, the sauce smells a little of mustard and the parsley is the classy addition.  
  
Chan watches him with a smile. “Your last task is to eat that and tell me what meat it is. Extra points if you can get the sauce right. Pass this and you can start as early as tomorrow.”  
  
A challenge Jeongin has actually prepared for. Nodding slowly, he sets the plate precariously on his lap and takes the knife and fork to gently cut off a piece of the meat. It’s tender and slices easily like a knife in butter. The sauce glistens under the office light and Chan leans back in his seat to watch as Jeongin lifts the fork to his mouth and chews.  
  
The taste is rich, almost reminding Jeongin of the veal they’d made him cook in one of his last lessons. The sauce is definitely some sort of mustard sauce and almost overpowers the meat itself in large quantities but compliments it in smaller doses. Jeongin works his way steadily through the small meal, savouring every bite until at last he sets the empty plate aside and meets Chan’s curious eyes.  
  
“I tasted veal,” he says as he pokes at a back tooth with his tongue. “Definitely veal actually, with mustard sauce.”  
  
“What did you think of the meal?” Chan asks and Jeongin nods.  
  
“Beautifully cooked, I loved it.”  
  
A large smile spreads over Chan’s face, he nods. “Well, you passed. How soon can you start?”  
  
-  
  
The freezer door clangs open, Changbin looks up as Chan walks in with a happy smile on his face.  
  
“Interview went well?”  
  
“Very well,” Chan sighs and turns to Jisung, who is looking over their prisoner where he’s still tied to the chair in the middle of the room. “Thank Minho for me, that newbie is a real cutie. He’ll be perfect.”

"He checked out well, nothing seemed off," Changbin shrugs. "Turns out the thing about the grandma is true. I drove by the address he's registered to and she was so confused she didn't even realise I was a stranger. Managed to get a small conversation before he came back from the store."

"He'll be perfect," Chan sighs. "And it'll shut Seungmin and Felix up about being understaffed."  
  
Changbin pulls out a piece of paper from his pocket and hands it over. “List of names,” he says. “None in the Busan restaurant but the ones in Seoul checked out when I looked into it. Three in the Seoul restaurant, one in Jeju and one in Daegu. I’m rounding them all up now and shipping them here.”  
  
“Good,” Chan huffs, his eyes narrowing in annoyance as he looks over the names. “Keep them alive, hang them up here when you get them.”  
  
Changbin nods. “As you wish.”  
  
“What should we do with this one?” Jisung askes, his foot nudging Shinhwa. The man is barely conscious, he’s pale, shivering and Chan looks down to see a stump where his left leg had once been. Jisung had done a good job, a clean cut through the bone, he’d left enough muscle to wrap around the bone and over that, he’d wrapped it tightly in a bandage that was now soaked in blood.  
  
Shinhwa is going to die one way or another. Be it bloodloss or when Changbin finally finishes him off.  
  
“Newbie says he tastes like veal,” Chan says. “He’s kind of scrawny but I reckon we’ll be able to get a few decent meals out of the rest of him. Feed the bones and leftover parts to the pigs at the farm, you know the deal.”  
  
Changbin nods. “You sure we’re not gonna need him again later? What if he knows more?”  
  
Chan considers it for a moment but then shakes his head. “I doubt he knows more. The names he put forward are enough for now, I’ll investigate the rest of the team but for now I’m fairly certain we’ve at least sniffed the bugs out. I’ll deal with the rest.”  
  
It’s at this point that Shinhwa begins to stir. The three of them watch, hovering over the man as he slowly opens his eyes and for a blissful moment, he looks confused. Even dazed. Then it hits. They watch his pupils dilate, the fear as he remembers where he is and finally the awareness of a pain that makes him look down at his missing leg.  
  
He starts to scream as Chan turns on his heel and walks back towards the door. “Strip him, pack the meat and get rid of the rest of him.”  
  
The door closes behind him with a heavy slam, leaving Jisung and Changbin to look over the hysterical Shinhwa.  
  
“You’re the boss.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I'm quite surprised by the attention this story has already received, thank you so much! All your comments, kudos and love make my day, my month, my year :) And definitely keep me motivated to punch out more updates XD  
> Enjoy!

[ ](https://ibb.co/J2mQpPB)

The uniform of God’s Menu is a lot lighter than Jeongin thought it would be. The material is silk on the outside but cotton one layer in for warmth. Black silk, short sleeved with a gold sash around the waist. It flows quite easily and yet even with the sash being as heavy as it is, there’s no part of the uniform that sticks out and could accidentally catch on something like an open flame.  
  
Stylish and practical.  
  
Jeongin’s hair is the problem. With the humidity being the way it is, no matter what he does, it won’t go down. It’s a mess and no amount of gel, water or a combination thereof will smooth it down.  
  
God’s Menu is just opening when Jeongin steps in. The first person he sees at the door of the kitchen gives him a huge smile as his silver locks glint just slightly under the light.  
  
“I’m Felix,” the boy says as his hand comes out for a handshake. “Jeongin, right?”  
  
Jeongin had read in Felix's file that he was from Australia. He can hear it in his accent but what catches him most off guard about him is the depth of his voice. From such a pretty and almost androgynous face like that, he hadn’t expected his voice to be deeper than the grand canyon.  
  
“But look at you,” Felix gasps as his hands come up to touch Jeongin’s cheeks. “You’re so cute! Channie said you were young and I saw you the other day but wow. I didn’t notice much until just now.”  
  
Jeongin has half a mind to lean back but he finds himself somewhat trapped in Felix’s touch. That is until a hand gently comes up to pull Felix back. The warmth of the touch takes Jeongin off guard but when he looks up and meets Hyunjin’s eyes, his entire body freezes. He hadn’t heard him coming at all but Hyunjin is almost pressed against his back, his arm outstretched as he takes Jeongin’s shoulder and pulls him out of Felix’s hold with minimal effort.  
  
Jeongin doesn’t know what’s happening but before he can realise it, he’s standing behind Hyunjin. The other is staring Felix down and Jeongin doesn’t know how the air changed so quickly but it’s unbearably heavy now.  
  
Which is why it’s so odd when Felix’s reaction isn’t fear but a pout.  
  
“Come on,” Felix whines. “He’s in my kitchen so this one belongs to me.”  
  
Jeongin frowns, confused as he peeks over Hyunjin’s shoulder. The other isn’t that much taller than him but somehow he manages to stand there like a brick wall, effectively shielding Jeongin from Felix for some reason.  
  
That’s when the doors swing open and the three of them look over to see Chan walking in with Changbin close behind him.  
  
“Chan!” Felix calls. “Tell Hyunjin the newbie is mine!”  
  
Chan takes one look at the three of them and shakes his head. “I ain’t havin’ nothin’ to do with this one,” he chuckles and heads towards the back of the room where he slips out a giant steel door.  
  
Jeongin is very confused now. What exactly does Felix mean by belonging to him and why is Hyunjin stopping him? He tries to step around Hyunjin but the other reaches an arm back to stop him.  
  
“Um…”  
  
“I let you have Seungmin,” Hyunjin says, his tone low and clear. “You can’t have both of them.”  
  
By now Jeongin’s mind is buzzing, trying to understand what it is Felix or Hyunjin seem to want with him. Every time he moves, Hyunjin’s arm stops him and he’s a little too bewildered to do much but watch the two of them at complete odds with each other. However pouty Felix seems to be, he’s serious and so is Hyunjin. There’s something here that Jeongin is clearly missing.  
  
But it’s Felix who seems to give in first because he huffs. “It’s not like you really let me have Seungmin, he wanted to go to me himself,” he points out grumpily. “Just like Innie.”  
  
The nickname makes Jeongin blink. “Innie?”  
  
“Suits you doesn’t it?” Felix beams before turning his pout to Hyunjin. “Fine. You win. But if Innie comes to me himself, that’s not my fault.”  
  
Jeongin looks at Hyunjin just in time to see his lips curl into a snarl. It’s in this moment that Jeongin doesn’t understand why Felix isn’t afraid of Hyunjin. Were that snarl aimed at him, he’d have already frozen up. Police in training or not, nothing in his training so far has covered the sheer terror that is Hyunjin.  
  
Then he turns around, grabs Jeongin’s shoulders and Jeongin freezes as Hyunjin leans in, tilts his head and licks Jeongin’s neck.  
  
At first, Jeongin is shocked. He feels Hyunjin’s tongue lick a long, warm stripe from the side of his neck, past his jawline and up to his cheek. When he pulls back, Jeongin’s eyes are wide as saucers and the shiver that rushes through his body is visible.  
  
He doesn’t even catch Felix laughing until later.  
  
“I licked it, it’s mine,” Hyunjin declares before finally letting Jeongin go and stalking off.  
  
Jeongin stares after him, watches as Hyunjin’s lithe figure disappears through the same door Chan and Changbin left. It’s not until he’s gone that Jeongin realises just how weak his knees feel as he’s suddenly aware of the wetness on his neck.  
  
All he can do is look up at Felix who is still giggling at him.  
  
“What was that?”  
  
“You’ll see soon enough,” Felix promises and Jeongin isn’t sure he wants to find out.  
  
He rubs at his neck until he’s certain it’s dry but even then he can still feel the warmth as he follows Felix around the kitchen. The other introduces him to the benches, the ovens and shows him where all the utilities are just as Minho walks in with Seungmin following close behind him.  
  
“It’s bullshit, Minho,” Seungmin is shouting and Jeongin catches the way Felix’s eyes roll before he turns and pretends not to see the pair. Jeongin can’t help but watch the way Seungmin stomps after Minho who still has a strange, graceful feline way to his steps.  
  
“Health and safety laws aren’t bullshit,” Minho says, not missing a beat as he picks up a chart stuck to the wall and leafs through the pages attached to it. “The law clearly states-”  
  
“Fuck the law, you know I’m allergic to latex!” Seungmin hisses.  
  
Minho finally turns and levels him with a seething glare. “If you don’t wear your fucking gloves while you’re cooking, I’ll personally walk back into this kitchen and force all that latex on your tiny undersized cock.”  
  
“Ignore them,” Felix mutters to Jeongin. “They’re always like this around each other.”  
  
“Why?” Jeongin blinks and the raised voices only get louder as the two stalk back out to the main dining area.  
  
Felix just smiles. “Exes,” he says and that explains all of it.  
  
-  
  
Jeongin’s first day is spent in the kitchen, as he’d expected. He’s put to work right away and when the restaurant opens and the customers file in, the orders are almost non-stop. With Felix barking out orders, Jeongin works as fast as he can to keep up with Seungmin and Felix. Minho, as it turns out, is out on the main floor all day, welcoming customers, seating them whilst Hyunjin and Jisung handle orders.  
  
It’s Chan and Changbin who don’t come out and as busy as Jeongin is, he doesn’t see either of them the rest of the day. He’s too busy in the kitchen to even notice much but when he finally does have the time to look up through the window that separates the kitchen from the dining hall, he sees Hyunjin’s blonde hair flutter around the sitting area.  
  
He’s a completely different person out there. In front of customers, taking orders, it’s hard not to be enamoured by him. His smile, the way he stands, everything is different and Jeongin wishes he could hear him speak because he imagines the tone of Hyunjin’s voice would be different too.  
  
“We’ve been woefully understaffed for awhile,” Felix explains later at night, when they’re near closing up and the influx of customers has thankfully subsided.  
  
Seungmin is fixing the last meal of the day whilst Felix and Jeongin clean up and as exhausted as Jeongin feels, it’s Felix who explains it could have been worse.  
  
“We had this guy before,” Felix tells him as he scrubs at the bench. “Great guy, he could whip up meals in a heartbeat and he had a way with ingredients but…”  
  
But he was a cop, Jeongin looks down and listens to Felix go on.  
  
“But he didn’t work out,” Felix finally finishes. “And for awhile there I was stretched thin. I mean, can you imagine trying to tackle today with only two people in the kitchen?”  
  
Jeongin barely managed with three, he shakes his head and looks around. “This kitchen is so big too. We could probably use another one to be honest.”  
  
“I would argue that too except Chan is very...picky,” Felix says with a secretive little smile. “Trust me, I had to fight to get you. I’m pushing shit up a hill to get another one. You’re the best I got, Innie. I’ll train you good.”  
  
It’s a promise that sounds closer to a threat but Jeongin smiles anyway and finishes with his bench just as Minho pushes the doors open and wanders through.  
  
“And that’s a wrap,” Minho announces. “The last customer has just left and God's Menu is finally closed. Well done everyone.”  
  
Everyone applauds and Jeongin has to look around. A normal restaurant is staffed a lot better than this, how God's Menu has even been able to survive demand is beyond him but he has to file that away in his head for later. Right now, he’s actually tired and he almost forgets about this morning until Hyunjin saunters in and Jeongin feels his body inexplicably freeze up.  
  
It’s not normal. He knows this. He’s the son of a police chief, he’s been through at least half of his training, he shouldn’t be afraid of someone like Hyunjin but he is. Then Hyunjin’s sharp eyes meet his and Jeongin raises his hand to touch his neck, as though his body is subconsciously remembering what Hyunjin did to it this morning.  
  
“A round of applause for our newbie!” Felix cheers, his arm coming around Jeongin and distracting him from the blonde at the doors. Jeongin looks up to see the others applauding him, even Chan, Jisung and Changbin who have somehow mysteriously appeared whilst he wasn’t looking.  
  
He has to put his nerves aside for a moment and bow at Seungmin’s enthusiastic request. When the clapping dies down, Chan steps forward.  
  
“Good work team,” he says. “Now, Fe, get Innie-” (when the fuck did that nickname stick? Jeongin thinks) “-up to speed as soon as you can. Friday is an important day and I need all hands on deck.”  
  
There’s a chorus of yes sir and when Chan’s eyes settle on Jeongin, he feels compelled to voice his assent as well.  
  
All he can think is that Chan is in the center of something incredibly ugly and dangerous and he has no idea how he’s supposed to gather enough evidence to bury him for good.  
  
-  
  
The week passes but not uneventfully. Jeongin immerses himself in God’s Menu and follows Felix’s teachings to the letter. This, of course, delights Felix and he goes out of his way to tell the others what a good student he is.  
  
Jeongin finds out he’s the youngest in their team. The others warm to him immediately and it’s not that surprising. He’s not threatening, he’s not an undercover cop as far as they’re concerned (too young) and he’s good at taking direction. Oddly enough, that last thing isn’t something Jeongin has to fake, it just comes naturally from his days as a model when he was a kid. Those days were full of taking direction and he does it very well.  
  
As he works and learns the ropes of God’s Menu as fast as he can, he starts filing away mental notes about the others. Things that weren’t in the original files. Such as Seungmin’s slightly hostile relationship with Minho, Minho’s openly public relationship with Jisung (Felix once told Jeongin that they fucked in the kitchen once and Jeongin didn’t believe him until he walked in on Thursday and found the two of them going at it on the benches). He keeps notes on Chan’s appearance in particular and the other isn’t actually often in the restaurant itself.  
  
Unlike the others, he doesn’t have a set role. He’s the one who overlooks not just the Busan branch but the other branches as well so it’s not out of the ordinary that he disappears for awhile but Changbin and Jisung tend to come in and disappear behind the large steel doors leading to the freezer.  
  
That’s what catches Jeongin’s attention. In the morning, when God’s Menu opens up, the kitchen staff have set roles and his is laid out in stone. He is to wash the kitchen, wipe down the benches, sweep the floor and prepare the work area. It’s Felix’s job to gather the vegetables and Seungmin is the one who gets the meat from the freezer.  
  
Felix doesn’t go in there and Jeongin is definitely not permitted to go in there. Naturally, being told that somewhere is off limits immediately peaks Jeongin’s interest.  
  
“That door,” Felix explains, pointing to the massive heavy steel doors blocking the kitchen from the walk-in freezer. “Is incredibly heavy. It’s really easy to get locked in there and the last thing I want is a frozen Innie.”  
  
Jeongin raises an eyebrow at him and so Felix leans forward to take his hand.  
  
“Look, I’ll show you.”  
  
Jeongin follows Felix across the kitchen to the doors and Felix positions him in front of them. He can feel the cold emanating from them and the first thing he notices is these doors are meant to be pushed open but they don’t have any knobs at all.  
  
Felix leans against the wall and folds his arms, an almost cocky grin on his freckled face.  
  
“Go on,” he says. “Try and open the door.”  
  
Jeongin turns his eyes back to the doors and places his hands on the steel. He’s not a shrimp. He’s not weak by any standard at all but when he pushes, the door doesn’t even budge. He braces himself against it, pushes against it with the weight of his body and the most the door does is move an inch before sliding back into place.  
  
The more he tries, the bigger Felix’s smile gets.  
  
“See?” he teases. “That’s why Seungmin’s job is to get the meat. He’s the only one of us three who can open the damn door.”  
  
“Why did they get such a heavy door?” Jeongin can’t help but ask. “What if Seungmin gets sick, then who opens the door?”  
  
Felix just looks amused and Jeongin finds his curiosity about the freezer rising. Naturally, when looking for suspicious things, the freezer is the most obvious thing. From a business standpoint, it makes absolutely no sense to have a freezer with such a massive door.  
  
“Innie,” he finally says and points to the lock right at the top of the door. “Baby, it’s locked.”  
  
Jeongin looks up and his stomach drops as he notices the lock holding the door shut. No wonder it never opened. He reaches up to unclick it and when he pushes, the door gives way a lot easier. Felix is busy laughing as Jeongin pushes the door open and looks inside.  
  
The cold hits him first. As he pokes his head in, the lights flicker on and the room is doused in a soft blue. Jeongin can see meat hooks, he can see shelves of packed meat neatly stacked on top of each other, wrapped in plastic with labels on the shelves.  
  
Felix sticks his head in as well and looks around.  
  
“Do you wanna do the freezer instead?” he offers. “Since you’re so curious about it. Seungmin can clean up, you two can switch.”  
  
Jeongin nods. “Okay then.”  
  
-  
  
Sitting in the squeaky chair, Changbin’s knee jiggles as he watches Chan arguing on the phone with his father.  
  
Other people may not view it as an argument. After all, Chan isn’t raising his voice. He isn’t moving around, he doesn’t even have a frown on his face but Changbin is not only someone who can read others well, he’s also been around Chan long enough to figure out his tells. It’s all in the way his finger taps gently on the desk, the restraint in his tone of voice, the slightest shift of his eye that tells Changbin the other is pissed.  
  
He waits patiently and when Chan finally hangs up, he watches the calm, light composure melt as his anger finally surfaces to the human eye.  
  
“Fucking asshole,” Chan hisses under his breath.  
  
Changbin can’t help but agree. He’s had the misfortune of meeting the current Prime Minister a handful of times and none of those times had been pleasant. Where Chan himself is a force of nature, his father is incredibly different. He’s one of those bureaucrats Changbin is genetically predisposed to hate.  
  
A money-grabbing, power hungry leech of a man who would do anything to reach the pinnacle of power. Changbin had, after all, been part of the large team working behind the scenes to bring that man to power. Smart and clever promotions in the public eye, whilst in the darkness it was Chan and his team who had worked to bring his competitors down. Be that through bribery or other forceful means.  
  
It was actually Jisung who suggested eating them. Chan wasn’t against the idea at the start but Changbin was. He’d done a lot of things in his time but he’d never eaten people before. Drugs, arson, murder is fine but cannabalism? That’s new.  
  
Hence the birth of God’s Menu. The cover for something that had actually started as a crazy experiment and turned into an effective way to silence anyone who dared stand in his father’s way.  
  
Of course, from the very beginning, Changbin never understood why Chan insisted on doing what his father commanded him to do. Had it been his own father, Changbin would have had no problem telling him to fuck off. But Chan, dutiful son he is, did whatever was asked of him and that was how they ended up with this chain of restaurants.  
  
If only their customers knew what - or who - they ate every day.  
  
“So,” Changbin begins, trying to keep the snark out of his voice. “What does he want now?”  
  
Chan eyes him but Changbin doesn’t take it back. He’s unapologetic about his distaste for Chan’s father. Always has been. The man may be charismatic and put a damn good face for the public but as far as Changbin is concerned, the man is far, far below him.  
  
“The Prime Minister,” Chan says in a level tone that quivers with thinly veiled anger. “Wants to be President.”  
  
It takes a moment for that to fully settle. Changbin thinks it through and he hadn’t been paying attention to politics. He hasn’t quite got the boner for it that Chan’s father appears to have but the current Presidential seat is up for re-election come next year. There’s an opening and when he thinks about it, of course it makes sense. There’s no way Chan’s father would be satisfied with the second most powerful seat - oh no, the most powerful pinnacle is there and it’s open soon.  
  
“Well,” he says after a moment. “Fuck him.”  
  
“Binnie.”  
  
“No, I’m serious, fuck him,” Changbin frowns. “I don’t get why you just do what he tells you to do and how the fuck does he even plan on getting there? It took a lot of deals and shady underground influences to get him where he is, it’ll take more than he has to get to President status. How do you say ‘go fuck yourself’ in English?”  
  
“It’s my mother who speaks English, not my father,” Chan reminds him. “And this isn’t up for debate. Just like when he started climbing the ladder for Prime Minister, I told you the same thing I’m about to tell you now - are you in or are you out?”  
  
“I’m in,” Changbin says without pause. “I’m in. But not for him, for you. Because you’re an idiot who does what your father tells you to do but come hell or high water, I chose to follow this idiot.”  
  
He likes the smile on Chan’s face. Relieved, apologetic and it reminds him of all the times Chan used to smile at him like that when they were younger. Come hell or high water, Changbin promised to follow him and be in his corner. He hadn’t broken that vow and Chan had never given him a reason to.  
  
“So what does he want us to do?” Changbin huffs. “I mean...for fucks sake, this is going to take some serious legwork. Does he even know how many eyes will be on that seat?”  
  
Chan just shakes his head. “I’m not even sure he’s eligible to get it because he’s Prime Minister but...it’s not up for discussion.”  
  
“Of course it’s not,” Changbin mutters.  
  
There’s a knock at the door and when Chan calls for them to enter, the door opens and Changbin can’t help but smile when Felix’s face pokes through the door.  
  
“What’s up, Fe?” Chan asks, leaning back in his seat as the other sidles into the room.  
  
“Just wanted to let you know, I love the newbie,” Felix says as he comes up to Changbin and plops himself right on Changbin’s lap. “He’s so cute. With the braces and that smile and ugh, it’s almost sickening - in a good way.”  
  
Changbin’s arms wind around Felix’s waist and he wants to purr when he feels the other lean into him. It’s familiarity on Felix’s part. Felix just is the kind of person who would sit on someone’s lap, hug them and think nothing of it. Maybe it’s the Australian in him or maybe it’s just him (because as far as Changbin is aware, Chan is nowhere near as touchy) but it means something else for Changbin.  
  
“We should have a welcome party for him,” Felix suggests with a radiant grin as his hand comes up absently to pet Changbin’s hair. “What do you think?”  
  
“Sounds good,” Chan agrees. “But only after we get through Friday. Is he gonna be able to handle it? We need to impress these executives, they’re close friends to my father.”  
  
“Innie will be fine,” Felix assures him without hesitation. His hand keeps flicking Changbin’s hair around his ear and he doesn’t seem to notice the other as his attention is completely on Chan. “Everyone will be fine. We’ll get through this without a hitch and then I suggest we party. Both to welcome Innie and to celebrate surviving Friday.”  
  
Chan grins. “Done deal, just make sure the ship is running smoothly. I don’t want Minho and Seungmin fighting either, keep them away from each other.”  
  
“I can promise a distance of maybe two meters but no more than that,” Felix teases as he finally gets up from Changbin’s lap and heads for the door. Changbin laments his absence, his lap suddenly feels cold and the sweet scent of Felix’s perfume fades as the other leaves.  
  
Before he can, Felix turns at the door to look at Chan. “Before I forget, that man we served today…”  
  
“The informant?” Chan hums. “The one who introduced that pig to us in the first place?”  
  
“Yes, him. A few of our customers complained he was a bit too chewy.”  
  
“He wasn’t in the best of shape,” Changbin comments dryly. “Chances are they were tasting the results of a lazy, sedentary life.”  
  
“Maybe,” Felix agrees. “But just to let you know, the best flavours seem to be from the healthy ones.”  
  
“Noted,” Chan mutters as Felix smiles once more and closes the door behind him.  
  
Once he’s gone, Chan turns to look at Changbin, he runs his eyes over the residue pink in Changbin’s cheeks, the way he sniffs his shirt where Felix had been leaning on it and he shakes his head.  
  
“You really need to say something to him. This crush of yours is getting ridiculous.”  
  
-  
  
The ‘Day of Reckoning’ as Felix theatrically calls it, comes at the end of the week and although Jeongin had been plenty prepared for a busy day, nothing could have prepared him for the commotion that entered the main dining hall.  
  
“We’ve been booked out,” Minho tells him that morning as they’re setting up. Seungmin is uncharacteristically frantic, rushing with Felix to set the kitchen up before the storm hits. “In a nutshell, the executives have booked the entire restaurant out for the evening. We’ll be catering to no less than three hundred people and whoever they decide to bring along. This won’t be our normal setup, we’ll have to prepare dishes and fill the tables as fast as possible.”  
  
His cat-like grin comes back to his face as he turns to face Jeongin. “Luckily for you, newbie, your role in this is relatively small compared to others. Your role is to keep the kitchen running. Keep the food coming, follow Felix’s orders and don’t stop until the fat lady sings. Got it?”  
  
Jeongin can do nothing but nod.  
  
As Minho had said, the main dining hall is transformed. What once was a landing with neatly set tables and chairs is suddenly cleared. Tables are placed strategically around the edges of the room along with long catering tables draped in white sheets. Music plays from the speakers and a podium is set before a clearing which Jeongin can only imagine is reserved for dancing.  
  
“Innie.”  
  
Jeongin follows Felix’s voice as the other points him to the bench.  
  
“Get started on the entrees and just keep going. Prep the vegetables and all the ingredients. If I need you to do anything else, I’ll tell you.”  
  
The bell for the door sounds and Jeongin gets to work.  
  
It’s quiet at first, the early stragglers aren’t much for talking but it soon changes when the majority of the party arrive. Jeongin keeps his head down but the noise and chatter from the main hall rises to an almost deafening level. Around him, Felix and Seungmin are rushed off their feet. Taking ingredients, preparing dishes and handing them out to Jisung who rushes them out into the main hall.  
  
He can hear Minho announcing something, he can hear the laughter and chatter but he doesn’t look up from his work and neither do the others.  
  
His hands start to hurt, his eyes sting from the onions and he doesn’t mind doing this for an hour but after three hours it starts to get really painful.  
  
That’s when he hears Chan’s voice suddenly from the podium, addressing a suddenly quiet crowd.  
  
“I’d like to thank you all for coming out today,” Chan says, his voice booming louder than usual into the kitchen. “My father sends his apologies, he would have loved to join us but sadly-”  
  
“Innie, keep going!” Felix orders from the other bench where he’s frying something that almost burns.  
  
Jeongin keeps his head down, the knife slicing quickly through the carrot he’s up to as Chan continues without missing a beat.  
  
When Chan flicks to English, Jeongin has to concentrate. He understands enough as Chan moves from apologising for the absence of his father and moves onto the reason why they’re all there. A celebration of something...something…Jeongin frowns. What’s ‘sacrifice’ in Korean?  
  
He doesn’t even notice it coming. A sharp pain, an automatic hiss and blood spurting onto the counter as he looks down and realises the knife cut into his thumb.  
  
“Fuck,” he hisses as he drops it and jumps back, cradling his thumb and staring, horrified, at the mess on the counter.  
  
“Shit,” Seungmin swears from where he’s working at the other counter.  
  
“Oh fuck,” Felix exclaims. “Did you just cut your finger off?”  
  
Jeongin looks down. There’s a lot of blood, more than he thought there would be but his finger is still, thankfully, attached. He did get it pretty good though, the cut is right down the side of his thumb.  
  
“We can’t stop,” Seungmin says. “We can’t, Fe, they’re running out of food.”  
  
“I can keep going,” Jeongin insists as he moves back to the bench. “I’ll just wrap this up-”  
  
“You’re not getting blood all over the food and I won’t have you getting infected on my watch!” Felix scolds, not loud enough that anyone in the dining hall can hear but certainly loud enough that Jeongin can tell he’s serious.  
  
Jeongin’s mind is split in two. He wants to keep listening to whatever Chan’s saying, it might be important but at the same time, he can feel the others panicking. Both Felix and Seungmin are too busy to come and help but both of them are worried for him.  
  
That’s when Jeongin feels a warm hand grasp his wrist. When he looks up, Hyunjin’s blonde hair glints as the other silently brings him to the sink and sticks his hand under the running tap. There’s no expression on his face, Jeongin hadn’t even heard him coming. He’s still and watches as Hyunjin brings out a first aid kit from one of the upper cabinets and looks over his shoulder at Felix who is still kind of panicking.  
  
“Salvage what you can, dump the rest,” he orders with a nod to the vegetables Jeongin bled over.  
  
It takes a second longer for Felix to jump to action and as he does, Hyunjin turns his attention back to Jeongin.  
  
Jeongin wants to listen to Chan, he wants to pay attention but he finds his attention completely stolen by Hyunjin. He watches as the other keeps his hand under the tap until it’s cold enough, then he takes it out, dries it with a cloth and starts wrapping a bandage around the wound with such swift precision that Jeongin can’t help but wonder if he’s done this before.  
  
By the time Jeongin snaps out of it, Hyunjin is already finished and Chan has stopped talking to an applause from the audience.  
  
Hyunjin fixes him with dead eyes as he gives him back his hand, all bandaged and fixed.  
  
Then without a word, he turns on his heel and heads back out of the kitchen.  
  
Felix is by his side a second later, looking over the bandage worriedly. “Innie, are you okay?”  
  
Jeongin is fine. It’ll hurt later but that’s not what’s on his mind right now. Along with frustration that he missed Chan’s speech, all he feels is confused.  
  
-  
  
They put Jeongin to work after that and Jeongin doesn’t get a single chance to look inside the main dining hall until long after the party is over and everyone has finished cleaning. Exhaustion finally hits and Jeongin isn’t the only one wrangled out by the night. His legs hurt, the cut on his hand hurts and even his head hurts as the restaurant finally winds down and lets the staff breathe a collective sigh of relief.  
  
“Fuck I hate those gatherings,” Felix complains as they put the last of the dishes away. “You’d think a room full of horny executives wouldn’t crave so much food but they really do.”  
  
Jeongin looks up in surprise. “Horny executives?”  
  
Then Felix just smiles and a large part of Jeongin doesn’t want to know. The budding undercover cop, however, has to know and when he walks out to the main dining room, he freezes right at the door.  
  
When God’s Menu closes after a full day of serving food to customers, messy tables are a given. Empty plates with residue of sauce, some left right where the customer sat, others haphazardly stacked in an attempt to help the waiter take them away. There would often be empty or half empty glasses sitting around, maybe some chairs pushed out but never pushed in.  
  
Normal mess for a restaurant.  
  
What greets Jeongin’s eyes is not that but the aftermath of what can only be described as an orgy. The clearing he’d thought was for dancing is littered with condoms, mysterious translucent globs of liquid and food all over the place. Some smeared to the flooring, plates left all over the place and it suddenly occurs to Jeongin that Felix and Seungmin had been in charge of cooking. Jeongin had been in charge of ingredients. No one had been in charge of dishes until it closed and this is why.  
  
The smell hits soon after and Jeongin knows what cum smells like. But in the aftermath of such a mess, he finds himself staring out at the remains with wide eyes. Whatever he’d imagined happening out in this noisy room, it wasn’t this.  
  
“Innie,” Felix chides as he comes out, takes Jeongin’s hand and drags him back into the kitchen. “Are you even legally allowed to see that?”  
  
“Was that an orgy?!” Jeongin asks without thinking. He has no filter, he’s too shocked.  
  
Felix doesn’t look affected at all. If anything, he looks used to it. “Yes,” he shrugs.  
  
“We hosted an orgy?!”  
  
“Technically Chan hosted it,” Felix corrects him without a slip. “We just made the food.”  
  
Jeongin thinks about those who actually work on the main floor, the ones who must have seen this going on and he pales. “Minho? Jisung? Hyunjin?”  
  
“Eww, they don’t partake, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Felix giggles. “They just serve. Food, lube, condoms, whatever they need.”  
  
Jeongin is fairly certain that this party at the very least broke a few hundred laws and what surprises him is how blatant it had been. There’s no secrecy about it, no one warned Jeongin not to speak of what happened tonight. It just happened and no one is surprised.  
  
Felix rubs his shoulder. “Innie, calm down. Your ears are turning red. Besides, your shift is over, you can go home now.”  
  
Jeongin stares at the door leading to the main room helplessly. “But that mess…”  
  
“Not your job to clean, especially after you cut your hand,” Felix assures him and starts pushing him to the door. “Go on, go home and rest. You’ve worked hard today.”  
  
Jeongin wants to protest. He wants to at least help and try to wrap his head around what happened tonight but Felix is so insistent that he finally gives in and agrees to go home. Go home, fix his hand, rest, digest what he’s learnt this week.  
  
It’s only been one fucking week but it feels like a year.  
  
He walks home and the walk in the crisp night air gives him the time to think. It’s been one week and so far he’s learnt that Gods Menu is a self functioning restaurant that appears normal. For the most part it is, with the exception of the party hosted tonight.  
  
He’s gathered that Chan is very much like the boss who comes in and out as he pleases, Changbin is sort of like his PA in that sense. Felix and Seungmin are in charge of the kitchen, Minho runs the clientele which leaves the task of waiting on tables up to Jisung and Hyunjin.  
  
If anyone were to look into this restaurant, without knowing about the orgy parties, they’d see a normal restaurant. Not even worth a second poke but working inside it reveals a completely different side. One Jeongin hadn’t been prepared for because none of the previous reports from the last undercover officer ever mentioned it.  
  
Granted, those reports were old and gathered before he even went into deep undercover but they were all Jeongin had to go on. Now, he’s discovering, what that previous officer had discovered may only be scraping the surface.  
  
But if this week has proven anything to Jeongin, it’s this; his undercover is working. Not one member of that restaurant thinks him suspicious in any way. If the way the others talk to him is anything to go by, he’s harmless to them. So harmless that they even saw nothing wrong in hosting an orgy party in his presence.  
  
That at least is comforting. For now, he’s safe. His bullshit backstory worked and he’s safe to dig out what he can, find out what’s going on with those disappearances, find evidence and bury those responsible.  
  
If he survives this, maybe he can survive telling his father that the last thing he wants to do with his life is become a police officer like him.  
  
The house is silent as he walks in. Not unusual, Minji is usually asleep long before he finishes his nightshifts. He makes his way through the house as quietly as he can so as not to wake her, up the stairs to the second floor and slowly down the hallway. He only pauses every now and then when his foot hits a creaky step but for the most part, the house is silent and he feels fairly confident he hasn’t woken her.  
  
He makes it to his room, opens the door as silently as he can and when he walks in, he closes it with the quietest of clicks.  
  
Then he turns the light on and freezes at the sight of Hyunjin sitting on the end of his bed. The other is still dressed in his uniform, one leg elegantly crossed over the other as he leans back on one hand. He’s holding up a piece of cardboard and Jeongin feels all the blood freeze, his stomach drops and his heart stops as he recognises the stamp and his name splashed in black and white. His birth certificate.  
  
“Yang Jeongin,” Hyunjin reads, voice dripping with menacing ease as he reads the certificate. “Son of the police chief, Yang Jeongil.”  
  
Jeongin feels his breath stop, his back hits the door and his knees threaten to give out on him. Especially when Hyunjin’s eyes flick back to him and he feels every iota in his body freeze like a deer in headlights.  
  
There it is. That sneer that would have scared him shitless had it been directed at him the other day. Now it is and he can swear he sees horns and a tail grow out of Hyunjin as the other slowly rises to his feet and tosses the certificate at Jeongin’s feet.  
  
“Well,” he says. “You won’t be the first pig I’ve killed.”


	3. Chapter 3

[ ](https://ibb.co/J2mQpPB)

Consciousness comes back slowly for Jeongin and for a blissful two minutes, he doesn’t remember anything recent.  
  
He’s taken back instead to a time when he was younger, sitting in the living room and watching cartoons. In the background, his mother is arguing with a man she often brings home when his father is away on business trips and he does exactly as he’s told to do when this happens - he turns the volume up.  
  
Screaming. Cursing. It gets pretty bad and the more they swear, the more Jeongin turns the volume up until he can’t anymore.  
  
Then a smack. Something hits the wall and Jeongin feels his blood freeze as he automatically mutes the TV. He can hear his mother crying and when he hears the sound of hurried footsteps, he reacts right away. He vaults from the couch and rushes for the window, pushing it open just as a man opens the living room door and runs for him.  
  
Jeongin climbs out. He just barely misses his hands as he lands in the garden. He can hear the man screaming his name, promising to beat his ass black and blue as he runs out towards the gates and out onto the streets.  
  
The first sensation to come back to him is touch. His hands, particularly the tips of his fingers are cold. The next sense that comes back to him is hearing and the first thing he hears is an unfamiliar voice calling his name.  
  
Next thing to come back is sight and when he opens his eyes, he finds himself looking straight up at Hyunjin and it comes rushing back to him in a split second. Hyunjin found out who he really is, he advanced on him threatening to kill him and now he’s holding Jeongin on the floor because Jeongin fainted.  
  
“Fucks sake,” Hyunjin scowls as he watches Jeongin slowly coming to. “What kind of cop are you?”  
  
Jeongin is a little too weak to fight back but he does groan weakly as Hyunjin picks him up as though he weighs nothing and carries him to the bed. The mattress is blessedly soft and comforting against Jeongin’s back but comfort stays far at bay as Hyunjin crouches next to him and puts a hand on his forehead.  
  
“Not...a cop…”  
  
Hyunjin snorts. “Yeah, I gathered that. No cop in their right minds would faint at a death threat.”  
  
Jeongin’s eyes flutter. He feels Hyunjin’s hand leaving his head and listens to the other getting up. There’s a clatter of something, he can’t be bothered opening his eyes to check but when he looks up again, Hyunjin has a cloth from the bathroom and is pressing it to his forehead. It’s cold, damp and instantly soothing.  
  
“So,” Hyunjin huffs, his eyes set in a permanent unimpressed scowl as he tends to Jeongin. “You’re not a cop but you’re not who you say you are either. Your father is that scumbag running the police district in Seoul, so who exactly are you?”  
  
Jeongin wishes that question weren’t so difficult to answer, but given that Hyunjin seems to know everything, he feels compelled to answer.  
  
“My father sent me here,” he mumbles and his throat feels scratchy. “To investigate…”  
  
“Chan,” Hyunjin finishes for him with a raised eyebrow. “How fucking desperate are the police that they’d send a kid like you?”  
  
“My age means I’m not a cop,” Jeongin repeats weakly, remembering how his father had put it.  
  
Again, Hyunjin snorts and it breaks the cold, emotionless facade he’d been keeping up until now. It’s almost endearing and it would be attractive if Jeongin weren’t acutely aware this guy is set on killing him.  
  
“Well, you have Chan fooled,” Hyunjin confirms quietly. “And technically you’re right, you’re not a cop.”  
  
Jeongin feels a chill tear through him and this time he can’t help but shiver. Hyunjin removes the cloth and watches as Jeongin uses the last of his energy to push himself into a sitting position. His eyes are wide with fear as his fingertips scrape the blanket beneath him.  
  
“Are...are you going to kill me now?”  
  
The smirk on Hyunjin’s face is a little less terrifying but a cold rush still shoots through Jeongin’s gut. He should never let his guard around Hyunjin, he knows this, but the way the other looks at him is a cold reminder.  
  
“Maybe you can still be useful,” Hyunjin finally says, his tone low in warning.  
  
Jeongin doesn’t even see the knife, let alone hear the click as it slips free from its sheath but he certainly feels it pressed against his throat before his brain can even register the fact that Hyunjin has moved. One second he’s sitting next to Jeongin, the next, he’s leaning over him pressing an extremely sharp blade to his throat.  
  
If the devil or Satan had a human form, it was no doubt Hyunjin leaning over him with the most psychotic look in his eye.  
  
“I’ll give you two choices,” Hyunjin whispers. “Choice one, you become mine. You do what I say, when I say. If I say bark, puppy, you bark and if I tell you to dig out information about your father for me, you do it without hesitation.”  
  
Jeongin whimpers, the blade cuts a little into his skin and he can feel little dribblets of blood slipping down his collarbone.  
  
“Choice two,” Hyunjin continues. “I kill you here and now, then I go downstairs and kill your ‘grandmother’. I’ll send your head to your father and let him wonder what happened to the rest of you.”  
  
Jeongin can feel tears squeezing from the corner of his eyes. He’s shaking so hard and his neck stings where it’s been cut. He’s so terrified he can’t even scream if he even had the strength or will to do so.  
  
Hyunjin tilts his head, golden hair flicking prettily over his left eye as he raises an eyebrow at him.  
  
“I need an answer,” he warns. “What's it to be?”  
  
Jeongin can’t exactly see how he could have much of a choice in the matter. Either become enslaved to this psychotic demon or die here and now. Strangely enough, when faced with both options, his main concern is not himself but Minji sleeping downstairs. She can’t remember a thing, she doesn’t know who he is and by the looks of it, she’s been alone for a very long time.  
  
But she doesn’t deserve to be gutted in her sleep because of something like this and Jeongin hasn’t known her very long but he surprises himself with his own concern for her over himself.  
  
“Tick, tock, puppy,” Hyunjin teases. “Answer me.”  
  
Jeongin shivers, he thinks about his father and croaks an answer that turns his own blood cold. “A,” he rasps. “Option A.”  
  
Hyunjin’s expressive features flip from psychotic to amused and pleased within seconds as he pulls the blade back and flicks it away as though it was never out in the first place.  
  
“Good choice, puppy,” he praises and sits back.  
  
There’s a strange ease about Hyunjin and it keeps taking Jeongin by surprise. The way Hyunjin crosses one leg over the other, watches him so calmly and yet Jeongin is well aware that Hyunjin is very alert - he just doesn’t seem it. One wrong move and Hyunjin will have that blade out and against Jeongin’s throat before he can even see it coming. His brain keeps reminding him he’s in the room with someone extremely dangerous and it stops his body from moving out of pure fear.  
  
“I won’t tell Chan about you,” Hyunjin promises. “But, my protection only lasts so long as you hold your end of the deal. You work for me now, I want information and you can be my little puppy that gets it for me. You tell anyone, find help, call for your daddy and you know what I’ll do to you - don’t you Innie?”  
  
There it is. That nickname again. It sounds much more sinister coming from Hyunjin’s lips but Jeongin finds himself nodding regardless.  
  
“You fuck me over, I’ll make sure your death is an intensely painful one,” Hyunjin promises. “And if you think I’m bad, you don’t want to see what’ll happen if Chan ever finds out the truth. You’ll wish I’d slit your throat.”  
  
“I understand,” Jeongin manages to say through a shaky voice. Hyunjin’s face changes rapidly. From threatening to pleased as he sits up and hums. “Good boy,” he sighs. “Now, before we begin, do you have any questions?”  
  
Only one comes to Jeongin’s mind.  
  
“How did you find out?” he can’t help but ask. “I took extra precautions and so did my father. No one in the force knows I’m his son.”  
  
Hyunjin grins. “That’s what I do,” he says, seeming quite proud of himself for this. “I dig into people, I find out everything about them. Before you were interviewed, Changbin and I looked into you. He found out about the grandmother but he bought your story. I dug deeper and found out everything.”  
  
“And still you told Chan that I was clear?”  
  
“Of course I did,” Hyunjin smiles, it would be a nice smile if it weren’t so terrifying. “If Chan had found out right away that you’re the son of not only a cop but the police chief, he’d either have you disappear or he wouldn’t approach you at all about God’s Menu. I, on the other hand, think differently. You can be used.”  
  
Jeongin’s mind speaks before he can really think it through. _He’ll kill me when he’s had enough, when I’ve worn out my usefulness, he’ll kill me._  
  
He shivers and bites his lip. He needs to find a way out before that happens, he needs to be useful before that happens. Suddenly faced with the daunting task of betraying his father to stay alive. He knows what his father would have wished he’d choose but his desire to survive this won out.  
  
He’s not a hardboiled officer, he’s not so loyal to the point of giving his life for an investigation he didn’t even want to be part of in the first place. He never even wanted to be an officer, that’s what his father wanted for him. So why should he die for it? There’s a part of his mind telling him he owes his father nothing, especially not his life for something like this. For a madman like Hyunjin.  
  
Maybe he should feel more guilty for agreeing to be Hyunjin’s pet and give away any information about his father and the police district but he doesn’t. All that runs through Jeongin’s head is a need to survive this.  
  
“ _How_ , did you find out about me?” Jeongin asks again, stressing the ‘how’ clearly enough that Hyunjin will understand he needs specifics. It confuses him, Hyunjin shouldn’t have been able to figure it out. His father had assured him he’d covered all his tracks, he’d gone out of his way to falsify records, he’d broken laws changing things around. On paper and online, Yang Jeongin, son of the police chief, did not exist so then how did Hyunjin know?  
  
“Well that’s the interesting part,” Hyunjin says, voice now soft as honey and it makes Jeongin shiver to hear the other switch so quickly. “The pig who was sent before you, hid better. His records were flawless and we didn’t see anything off about him until I caught him making notes about Chan’s movements. But you, Innie, were obvious from day one.”  
  
He then flicks a printed photo from his pocket to show and Jeongin’s stomach drops as he recognizes the woman in the picture. He’s probably about seven years old in the photo, smiling brightly and standing in a dress and a long brown wig for an advertisement she’d put him in as a favour to a friend. His mother, him under her arm and in the background, looking somewhat unimpressed, his father.  
  
“Oh god.”  
  
“Cute kid,” Hyunjin hums. “If it wasn’t labelled as you, I’d have thought you had a sister.”  
  
His mother’s Facebook page. Jeongin stares at it in disbelief, it’s the only way Hyunjin could have gotten that photo but Jeongin thought his father had removed everything that could be traced back to him so why was this still here?  
  
A cold realisation drips down his spine and Hyunjin seems to recognise it because he nods right away.  
  
“Yes,” he says sweetly. “How did the chief of police overlook such a major detail of your past? How did he not cover it up? Seems the police are more incompetent than I thought.”  
  
Perhaps his father isn’t the one who should be feeling betrayed.  
  
Hyunjin then produces more pictures from his pocket. He flicks them out onto the bed one by one and they’re all from the Facebook page. Him at his high school graduation, him and his mother overseas in Los Angeles for the holidays. Him standing with his stern father on the first day of police academy training.  
  
His father was supposed to ensure all of that was taken down and buried to the fullest extent of technology. He was supposed to have buried any incriminating evidence and yet here it is, revived, staring him in the face.  
  
“They didn’t even give you a fake name,” Hyunjin notes, tone as unimpressed as Jeongin feels. “They relied instead on the commonness of your name - rookie mistake.”  
  
Jeongin wants to cry. His father can’t have been this incompetent. He’s the chief of police, he’s meticulous, he’s detailed and he plans very well. There’s no way he could have cut corners about this which then means one of two things: either he’s losing his touch (unlikely) or he deliberately didn’t cover Jeongin as well as he should have. The idea that this is deliberate makes Jeongin shiver, because that means his own father had sent him to a pit of vipers in the full knowledge they’d kill him.  
  
His own son. It’s unthinkable but Jeongin knows that it’s the more likely of the two. He doesn’t want to think so ill of his own father but he’s not stupid enough to believe his father magically became incompetent overnight.  
  
Hyunjin, on the other hand, seems perfectly fine with thinking this comes down to incompetency and not a deliberate disregard for Jeongin’s life.  
  
“Don’t worry, puppy,” the psychotic blonde smiles. “So long as you bark the way I want you to, I’ll take better care of you than your last daddy did.”  
  
At that, Jeongin can’t help a bitter smile. “Are you saying you’ll be my new daddy?”  
  
“If you ask nicely.”  
  
Then something changes. Something moves. Jeongin doesn’t notice it at first but when Hyunjin freezes, he notices the change in the air. A soft mewling, a purr and when Onyx in all her tortoiseshell glory jumps up onto the bed without warning, Hyunjin pales and jumps back with shriek.  
  
“Wha-?”  
  
“You have a fucking cat?!” Hyunjin gasps, one sleeve coming up to cover his nose as Onyx purrs and wanders over to Jeongin to brush her tail against him. It’s uncharacteristically friendly for her but he’s too distracted by Hyunjin’s reaction.  
  
“Are you...allergic?”  
  
“Get that satanic thing out of here!” Hyunjin demands, his back to the wall as he tries to put as much distance between himself and Onyx, who is now looking at him with interest.  
  
Jeongin doesn’t move. He stays seated on the bed, watching as Hyunjin tries to breathe through his sleeve. When Onyx jumps off the bed and starts moving towards him, Hyunjin squeaks and jumps for the door.  
  
“I mean it, get it out of here!” he tries to demand but his voice is a lot less intimidating than before. It almost throws Jeongin off how one fluffy animal can strip all of Hyunjin’s terrifying aura with one meow. “I will fucking throw your mangy cat out the window, get it out of here!”  
  
Jeongin surprises himself with his answer: “No.”  
  
Hyunjin’s eyes darken. “What the fuck do you mean, ‘no’?”  
  
“I mean no,” Jeongin shoots back and his internal monologue is yelling at him.  
  
_What are you doing, what are you doing, Yang Jeongin?! He’s going to kill you, do what he says!_  
  
Hyunjin sneezes once, then again as Onyx comes closer and when she brushes herself against his leg, he almost kicks her off.  
  
“Fine,” he manages as his eyes begin to water. “Fine, I’ll leave but this isn’t over! You still do what I say, when I say it. From now on, your life is mine! Understood?”  
  
Jeongin surprises himself with the overwhelming feeling of apathy as he nods and watches Hyunjin escape out the door with another sneeze. He can hear the other running down the stairs and when he turns to look out the window, he watches the blonde rushing out the door and sneezing on his way to the footpath.  
  
All of a sudden he feels terribly drained. Perhaps tomorrow he’ll freak out about how close he’d come to death tonight, he’ll feel angry about how his father hadn’t covered for him but right now he just feels incredibly tired.  
  
He pets Onyx, checks on Minji and heads back to bed. It doesn’t take him long at all to shut down and sleep deeper than he’s ever slept before.  
  
-  
  
As Jeongin suspected, the freakout comes the morning after. His brain processes the information overnight and when morning floods into his room, he has a panic attack. This is a blatant, complete disregard for his life. It has to be. He almost wants to call his father and scream at him but that would put him in danger.  
  
Hyunjin knows about him, the others still don’t and Jeongin isn’t dumb enough to think they stopped keeping an eye on him just because he’s clear. After all, the other police officer had been clear too. After such a fuckup, they’re not likely to trust Jeongin so quickly no matter how good he appears on paper.  
  
What Jeongin has to trust (and he uses the word ‘trust’ very, very lightly) is the fact that Hyunjin will stop the others finding out by covering the tracks his father failed to cover. After all, it will look bad for Hyunjin too if the likes of Chan or Changbin find out about the Facebook page. Something so simple, so blatantly obvious, they wouldn’t think it an accident if Hyunjin claimed he didn’t know about it.  
  
That and Hyunjin needs him, that’s the only thing keeping Jeongin alive right now.  
  
So after his panic attack, he dresses and heads to work as usual. Felix meets him at the door and it’s only when he catches the whiff of cleaning products that he remembers about the orgy party that happened last time.  
  
“So about the party,” Felix begins, uncharacteristically uncomfortable for a moment. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realise no one had told you. Sometimes those things happen here.”  
  
Jeongin blinks at him. “I’ve never heard of a restaurant hosting an orgy,” he points out. “Weren’t the customers really important bigwigs?”  
  
“They’re associates of the current Prime Minister, yes,” Felix confirms, albeit a little reluctant. “Chan’s father. Rich people have weird tastes.”  
  
That’s putting it lightly, Jeongin thinks but he follows Felix inside where Seungmin is already setting up.  
  
“Open the windows, air the place out,” Minho is saying from the front room. Through the window, Jeongin can see he’s ordering Jisung around but the other doesn’t complain once as he goes around opening windows and setting up.  
  
“Who cleaned?” Jeongin asks, suddenly taken over by a morbid curiosity to know what kind of person would willingly step into the mess that had been last night.  
  
“We hire people for that,” Felix giggles. “You can’t pay me enough to scrub the jizz out of the carpet.”  
  
Still no sign of Chan or Changbin but that’s normal. The two of them don’t come into the restaurant as permanent staff. Jeongin notes with a fair amount of relief that Hyunjin isn’t in either.  
  
“Looks like another slow morning at God’s Menu,” Seungmin comments as Jeongin and Felix come to help him set up. “I like it that way, last night sucked.”  
  
“But you did so well,” Felix makes sure to add with a bright smile. “We all did. Those customers left satisfied.”  
  
Seungmin snorts. “I’ll bet they did.”  
  
When Hyunjin appears midday, no one seems to mind. It’s a slow morning, not that many customers and Hyunjin appears to have other duties aside from his tasks on the main floor. Jeongin is tempted to ask but a new sort of wariness has set over him. Felix is friendly enough and Seungmin doesn’t seem to mind him but he can’t trust either of them.  
  
However harmless they appear, they’re still involved in a major chain of disappearances by their association with Chan.  
  
“You ready for the party tonight?” Felix asks him after his lunch break.  
  
Jeongin stares blankly at him. “...tonight?”  
  
“Your welcome party!” Felix reminds him with an almost exasperated chuckle. “I told you about it the other day, we’re having a party to welcome you in. It’s going to be at Chan’s place since he’s the boss and his place is massive.” When he’s not working luxury orgy nights and dressed in three-piece suits, Chan wanders around in shirts and jeans. Jeongin almost forgot he’s loaded.  
  
“Oh, right, yes I’m ready. There’s not going to be an orgy, is there?”  
  
Felix giggles and shakes his head as he starts in on grating the carrots. “I assure you, no orgy. Just good food, music and drinks.”  
  
It sounds harmless enough but it still puts Jeongin on edge. “Is...everyone going to be there?”  
  
“Of course!” Felix says and he must have caught the look on Jeongin’s face because he adds: “Why, is there someone here you don’t like?”  
  
“Aah, it’s not that-”  
  
“It’s Hyunjin, right?” Felix guesses and before Jeongin can stutter out his assurances, the other smiles. “Because he licked your neck, right?”  
  
Jeongin almost forgot he did that. Hyunjin has threatened his life, pressed a blade to his throat and scared him shitless. Licking his neck is the least harmful thing he’s done in the last week.  
  
“Right. Yes. The neck.”  
  
“Don’t worry about it,” Felix is quick to assure him. “Hyunjin’s weird but he’s not gonna hurt you. He licked your neck to spite me.”  
  
“Why would that spite you?” Jeongin can’t help but ask.  
  
“It’s a game we play. When Seungmin was brought in here, I claimed him before Hyunjin could. We play this game where we claim people, there’s nothing to it, it’s just something I have with Hyunjin. He doesn’t talk to many people so I thought up a game.”  
  
Jeongin blinks at him, it sounds weird and it must appear on his face because Felix continues. “When I started, Hyunjin was new too. He didn’t talk to any of us and he was so serious all the time - it was kind of scary.”  
  
Yes, Jeongin can easily see that.  
  
“So, to get him to lighten up, I suggested a game. We go around claiming people, the person who has the most wins. Of course at the start, we had to go around asking people if they’d let us claim them but it got him to open up. I’m surprised he even started playing. When Seungmin got here, the game was already in full swing. Now you’re here and well…you saw how Hyunjin decided to claim you.”  
  
Jeongin decides that thinking about how weirdly absurd it is to ‘claim’ people at all is not going to do him any good so he puts it aside. Felix seems happy enough that it dragged Hyunjin out of his shell so any moral debates on the game would be a moot point.  
  
“So...who’s winning?”  
  
“Well I claimed Chan, Seungmin, Minho and Changbin. Hyunjin has you and Jisung so right now, I’m winning. The guy who was here before you, the one who left, he was Hyunjin’s so maybe I let him claim you out of pity. Either way, there’s nothing you have to do, it’s just a game.”  
  
To you maybe, Jeongin thinks bitterly as he touches the tiny cut on his throat. It’s closed up now and it doesn’t sting but it’s a light reminder of what happened last night.  
  
The day passes by uneventfully and when God’s Menu closes up, Jeongin is whisked away by the others. He rides in Jisung’s car with Jisung and Minho giggling to each other in the front seat whilst he and Felix sit in the back. Felix chats to him about this and that but it’s clear he’s trying to ignore the lovefest going on in the front and every time Minho giggles, Felix switches the subject.  
  
Chan’s house is just a little out of the way. It’s quite a drive out of Busan and into the more rural areas. At night, the sight of paddocks and long stretches of rice fields and grapevines seem to shimmer under the moonlight. Jeongin looks out the window in wonder. It’s not a common sight in Seoul, the sight of pure nature, gently tended to but largely left alone in its wondrous glory.  
  
He only realises Chan’s house is nearing when he sees the lights in the distance and cranes his head to get a good look.  
  
Chan’s house is three stories high, built like a fucking victorian mansion. Complete with the tall iron fence, the impeccably trimmed shrubs, fountains and green grass lining a well kept path to the front steps. The wide arch windows offer an unfiltered peek into a life of luxury that Jeongin’s never known, never seen with his own eyes.  
  
The last kick to the gut is the fucking butler, valet and maid waiting at the steps when Jisung pulls the car up and casually chucks his keys to the valet for parking.  
  
Felix gets out, he bounces around the car to join Jeongin as he climbs out and stares up in awe. He hadn’t really taken the time to imagine what Chan’s house would look like but if he had taken a moment to wonder, he couldn’t possibly have thought of something like this. Similar to the way God’s Menu seems to stick out, this mansion stands alone in a mass of unoccupied but well kept land.  
  
Jeongin wouldn’t be surprised if Chan owned the acres and acres of land surrounding his mansion as well.  
  
The host himself appears at the door, still dressed in casual clothing that now look completely out of place in the grand entrance of his house. He pulls Felix into a hug first and chatters happily with him in English and it takes Jeongin a moment to realise he’s having more trouble understanding him than the night before.  
  
It hits him later that last night when Chan had addressed the audience, he’d changed his accent for their sake. When speaking alone with Felix, his Australian accent is thick and the words come out too fast for Jeongin to understand.  
  
The maids, servants, butlers and valets are all dressed to the nines. Uniforms of black and white, sharp and almost intimidating when they come in droves. The marble floor of his entranceway is so polished that Jeongin can see his reflection and the tall walls of his house stand immaculately clean, not a single dust particle in sight.  
  
A well tended mansion with a full roster of staff to maintain its upkeep. Jeongin wonders if Chan’s ever seen Downton Abbey.  
  
“Welcome, welcome,” Chan says, flicking easily to Korean as he pats Jeongin on the shoulder. “Make yourself at home, don’t be shy.”  
  
“If you insist,” Jisung shrugs with a laugh.  
  
They’re taken to the ballroom (and Jeongin has to sigh, of course there’s a ballroom) where there are already tables stacked with hors d’oeuvres. There’s music playing from the speakers fixed to the wall and there’s a crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling. As the others pour in, Jeongin stares up at the chandelier and swallows hard. Knowing Chan is rich is one thing, seeing the result with his own eyes is quite another.  
  
“Hello, puppy.”  
  
His entire body freezes with dread. Jeongin turns to see Hyunjin standing right beside him as though he was always there. He’s still in uniform, hands tucked into his pockets as he looks up at the chandelier with Jeongin.  
  
Jeongin bites his tongue and turns his eyes back to the crystal. “Hello, Hyunjin.”  
  
“You know, I might get you to start calling me, master,” Hyunjin says, tone far too casual and amused for Jeongin’s liking. “How would you like that, puppy?”  
  
Jeongin closes his eyes and imagines wringing Hyunjin’s throat. “If you wish, master.”  
  
Hyunjin laughs. It’s an unexpectedly pleasant sound and Jeongin frowns when he realises the effect Hyunjin’s laugh has on him. It’s not right. Nothing about Hyunjin should be at all pleasant and yet Jeongin can’t hate the sound of his laugh.  
  
For such a wide space, it’s only the seven of them and the servants who use it. Chan turns the music up when everyone has arrived and they talk amongst themselves whilst the servants walk around carrying trays of champagne. Jeongin isn’t by any means a drinker but when he sees the alcohol, he grabs it and downs the flute glass in one gulp.  
  
Maybe this night will get easier if he’s drunk.  
  
The others are talkative, quick and eager to tell him all about them. He learns that Jisung and Minho are together (he already knew that thanks to their tryst in the kitchen but he nods politely nonetheless) he hears all about Minho’s messy breakup with Seungmin (from a drunk Seungmin who then goes on to point out that Minho is a cat which is why Hyunjin’s never near him for too long) and Felix tells him all about his brotherly relationship with Chan.  
  
“I came to South Korea and I didn’t know anyone,” Felix says, animated now that he’s had a few to drink. Some people get angry when they’re drunk, some get teary like Seungmin. Felix is a talker when he’s sober but he’s even more so when he’s drunk.  
  
“Chan found me in a bar, of all places. We got along right away. Aussies do that, you know, they find each other and latch on when overseas,” Felix explains, quite animated and happy as he thinks back on it. “Chan taught me everything, he introduced me to Minho who taught me Korean and now here I am. A Korean-speaking, functioning member of society!”  
  
Jeongin catches Chan shaking his head with an amused smile and he turns back to Felix in time to see the other drinking a new glass. He takes the opportunity to snag one himself, the fuzzy bliss of tipsiness already dulling his senses and preventing a possible anxiety attack. Which will undoubtedly come if he’s left long enough to really think about the precariously dangerous position he’s in.  
  
The others don’t seem to have any reservations with getting drunk. Even their designated sober driver, Jisung, downs more than a hefty amount of alcohol and if Jeongin were sober, he’d wonder how the hell they’re getting home. As it is now, though, every drink he consumes takes the terrifying reality of his situation further and further away until it’s nothing but an afterthought.  
  
“Look at Felix, isn’t he pretty?” Changbin slurs, his arm draped around Jeongin’s shoulders as he points to Felix on the other side of the room. “He’s so pretty.”  
  
“Binnie, don’t molest the kid,” Minho scolds, gently taking Jeongin out of his hold. At first Jeongin is thankful for the rescue until he realises he’s now in Minho’s hold and that’s not much better.  
  
“But Fe is so pretty!” Changbin insists and Minho just steers Jeongin away.  
  
“Don’t mind him,” he says. “He’s harmless but he’s been pining for years. The only person who doesn’t seem to know about his crush is Felix himself.”  
  
It’s then that a strange scent wafts towards Jeongin. A strange and almost subtle combination of burnt paper, lemongrass and fire. It reminds Jeongin of one of the classes he’d taken in the academy and it hits him after a second or two that he’s smelling weed. His head whips around just in time to see Hyunjin blowing it out to him.  
  
The scent is ten times stronger, Jeongin coughs and wrenches himself out of Minho’s hold to cover his nose.  
  
“Ooh, a virgin,” Jisung notes upon seeing Jeongin’s reaction. He takes the joint from Hyunjin’s lips and takes a drag himself before blowing it out towards Minho. “Don’t worry, we’ll break you in.”  
  
“Don’t force him,” Minho scolds as he snatches the joint and takes a puff himself.  
  
Drugs now. Jeongin stares and he shouldn’t be surprised. Like, right now, he really shouldn’t be surprised. Of all the things he’s seen so far of this fucked up unit - death threats, orgies included - this is the least surprising thing and yet once again, he’s surprised enough that Hyunjin grins at the look on his face.  
  
“Don’t be a wet rag, Innie,” he teases as he takes the joint and holds it out. “Try it.”  
  
“No, thank you.”  
  
“You don’t have to, if you don’t want to,” Minho reminds him gently. “Not everyone here smokes. Chan, for example, will never smoke.”  
  
“That’s because Chan is a machine,” Jisung comments dryly as he snatches the joint off Hyunjin.  
  
Jeongin squirms. The look on Hyunjin’s face puts him on edge. There’s a dark look in his eye and his lips, distracting as they are, curl just a little to the left. As though he knows something Jeongin doesn’t.  
  
“Try it.”  
  
It’s not an offer this time. It’s a command. Hyunjin hasn’t called him puppy but it’s in his eyes, Jeongin is not to deny him.  
  
Minho frowns at Hyunjin but the blonde pays him no attention. Hyunjin’s entire focus is fixed on Jeongin as the younger slowly, gently, plucks the joint and holds it awkwardly between his fingers.  
  
“Bet you’ve never held a cigarette before either,” Jisung notes and there’s nothing malicious or teasing in his tone. Merely an observation. A correct one too, Jeongin’s father would have gutted him for smoking tobacco, let alone a fucking joint.  
  
Hyunjin is by his side before he realises the other has moved. He takes Jeongin’s hand and rearranges his fingers to hold the joint properly. Hyunjin’s touch is warm and maybe it’s because Jeongin is actually a little drunk now but he doesn’t feel as scared by Hyunjin as he did before.  
  
“Like this,” Hyunjin instructs him, fixing Jeongin’s fingers gently around the joint. “And when you smoke, inhale and hold your breath so the weed goes here.”  
  
His finger prods gently at the center of Jeongin’s chest, between his lungs.  
  
“Hold it there for a few seconds, then release.”  
  
He’s strangely gentle in his instruction and Jeongin follows easily. He inhales but the first inhale is surprising. He’s not used to the hot smoke flowing into his lungs, the overpowering skunk of the marijuana and he ends up spluttering and coughing right away.  
  
Minho and Jisung are laughing but Hyunjin just smiles.  
  
“Try that again.”  
  
So Jeongin does and it’s easier when he has an idea of what to expect. He follows Hyunjin’s instruction to a T, lets the smoke filter into his body and holds it at the centerpoint of his chest. It simmers gently, burning away at his lungs and inhibitions before he expels it all in one, relieved breath.  
  
The hit is nearly immediate. A cloud of fuzz fills his brain and he leans back into Hyunjin’s waiting arm. It’s not a complete high but enough of a buzz that Jeongin is now aware what will happen if he keeps smoking the stuff. It feels nice, the last remnants of his anxiety fizz into nothing and Jeongin is completely relaxed.  
  
Strange, since he’s in a room of potential murderers but right now, he just can’t bring himself to care.  
  
The night gets very fuzzy after that. Jeongin likes the way the drug makes him feel, it offers a nice reprieve from the constant anxiety and he gets the hang of smoking after that. He’s heard of people losing bits and pieces of their memory when drinking but it never happens to him. He remembers losing enough inhibition to dance with Chan, he remembers the music getting louder and he remembers laughing gleefully as he jumps up and down. Completely abandoning the idea of shame and shyness in favour of dancing with everyone.  
  
At some point, Hyunjin sits next to him and leans in. At first, Jeongin flinches but then Hyunjin’s hands come up to hold his face.  
  
“Hold still.”  
  
Maybe the command would be scarier if he weren’t so stoned and drunk.  
  
Hyunjin inhales the joint between his fingers before putting it down. He holds the smoke in his lungs before leaning in to cup Jeongin’s face. Between their mouths, he cups a tunnel with his hands and breathes directly into Jeongin’s open mouth.  
  
The smoke leaves Hyunjin and flows right into Jeongin’s lungs. Then Hyunjin leans back and Jeongin exhales in bliss.  
  
“That was...intimate.”  
  
Hyunjin raises an eyebrow at his choice of words and picks the joint up again. “It’s called a blowback.”  
  
“Do it again.”  
  
“What, you’re not stoned enough?”  
  
He laughs again, the sound much more pleasant now that Jeongin’s too stoned to be scared of him.  
  
He humours him. This time Hyunjin keeps the joint in his mouth as he cups a tunnel between them. He inhales and exhales and as he does, Jeongin takes it all in. He’s too unguarded not to. The high hits the same as it would have had Jeongin been smoking the damn thing straight but there’s something incredibly intimate about inhaling straight from Hyunjin.  
  
When he pulls back he’s stoned, drunk and there are butterflies in his stomach.  
  
“Good puppy.”  
  
Yesterday, that had scared him. Right now, however, Jeongin can only smile. Gummy, dopey kind of grin that shows off his braces and makes his eyes squint and shine. Hyunjin pauses for a moment, watching him curiously, as though he’s just noticed something about Jeongin that he didn’t notice before.  
  
That’s when Changbin appears, leans down and whispers something in Hyunjin’s ear. Jeongin watches Hyunjin’s eyes turn from a soft caramel to cold, hard and dark.  
  
He gets up without a word and follows Changbin. Jeongin almost follows them out too but a hand on his shoulder keeps him from leaving.  
  
“Stay and dance with me, Innie,” a drunk Seungmin pleads as he drags him away from Chan, Changbin and Hyunjin and more towards the middle of the room where the others are.  
  
Jeongin looks over his shoulder. The servants don’t even look up as the three of them leave the room, the door is closed firmly behind them and Jeongin wants to follow. He wants to know what’s going on but the others are pulling him in. He gets pulled into a hug with Felix and a drunk Jisung is trying to get him to dance.  
  
Then Minho hands him another joint and Jeongin reluctantly puts his curiosity aside. He can’t escape now and he’s too stoned to focus.  
  
-  
  
“How’s Innie?”  
  
Hyunjin looks up when he enters the room. The question was asked by Chan and although he’d been told not to smoke or drink too much, he had. Chan leans in and when he notices the look in Hyunjin’s eyes, he huffs.  
  
“I told you I need you straight.”  
  
“And I was getting the baby stoned,” Hyunjin holds up his hands and nods to the hooded figure strapped to the chair in the center of the room. “Who’s this?”  
  
“Special delivery, just for you,” Changbin grins and he’s not as drunk or stoned as he initially let on. He, at least, kept his promise to remain focused.  
  
This room is one of the smallest in the mansion. It’s inaccessible from the hallway and one has to go through three hidden doors and two long hallways to get to it. Chan is nothing if not careful and meticulous. It’s not as grand as the rest of the mansion. Dank and dark would be the best way to describe it, like a medieval torture room complete with the swinging light overhead.  
  
There’s no furniture save for the chair right under the light, to which a man is strapped down. His hands bound, head covered with a burlap sack.  
  
Hyunjin takes a step closer and the man whimpers, as if sensing his presence.  
  
“Thought you were going to have them all shipped straight to the restaurant?” Hyunjin asks as he nudges the foot of the man. He whimpers and Hyunjin can’t help but smile. He loves the sound of someone helpless. Unbidden, he imagines that same sound coming from Jeongin and he has to immediately think of something else.  
  
A whimpering, tied up Jeongin is an extremely distracting thought. Moreso than he initially realised.  
  
“This one came early,” Changbin says. “Consider him a present.”  
  
Hyunjin plasters an overly fake and touched expression. He presses his hands to his chest in a show of fake emotion and sighs. “You shouldn’t have.”  
  
Chan gestures to him and Hyunjin doesn’t wait another moment before taking hold of the sack and ripping it off so quickly the man whimpers.  
  
Large, frightened eyes meet him and Hyunjin smiles.  
  
“Hello.”  
  
-  
  
It’s the early hours of the morning, the sun has already risen and finds the boys spread out in the ballroom. The servants had fetched some blankets, futons and couches and the boys had arranged themselves naturally. Minho and Jisung snuggled on the couch and would have probably fucked there had they not been so stoned. Felix shares a futon with Seungmin and Jeongin got his own.  
  
The morning light filters through the arched windows, warming the bed and Jeongin as the birds outside chirp their morning tune.  
  
Jeongin is in the realm between sleep and wakefulness when he feels someone climb into bed with him and snuggle into his back. He’s too tired, too drunk and too stoned to bother turning around so when an arm wraps around his middle, he merely lets out a small, sleepy mumble.  
  
“Puppy.”  
  
Hyunjin. Jeongin should be scared. He’s not. He just mumbles again and feels the other smiling where his face is tucked against Jeongin’s neck.  
  
Then skin, something is being pressed against his lips and Jeongin cracks an eye open to see something red splattered on Hyunjin’s wrist. Is that blood? It’s not Hyunjin’s blood, he’s not bleeding anywhere but that’s blood...isn’t it?  
  
“Lick it off, puppy.”  
  
Jeongin whines. Hyunjin smells like smoke and some sort of musky cologne that would smell divine were it not overlapped with the smoke and a strange metallic scent.  
  
“Puppy.”  
  
Warning tone. Hyunjin’s other arm tightens a little around Jeongin’s waist and Jeongin closes his eyes.  
  
“Lick it off.”  
  
So he does. His tongue slips out and the taste of the blood is metallic as it slides over his tastebuds and Jeongin forces it down his throat. It’s only a little but it makes him wince. But then he feels Hyunjin’s lips on his neck, kissing, nibbling and he forgets the taste. Hyunjin is curled right against his back and when Jeongin squirms back, his ass rubs gently against Hyunjin’s front, causing the other to let out a strange, strangled kind of sound that Jeongin likes.  
  
He does it again and when Hyunjin almost moans, his hand moves from Jeongin’s waist to his hips where he holds him down to stop him moving again.  
  
“Bad puppy,” he whispers. He sounds a little raspy now and maybe he’d meant to sound more intimidating but he’s not, instead his voice is doing weird things to Jeongin.  
  
Jeongin can’t rub against him anymore so he settles. Hyunjin kisses his neck again and a wave of calm washes over him when Hyunjin’s free hand comes up to stroke Jeongin’s hair back.  
  
“Sleep.”  
  
He should be scared. He should be terrified. He should ask whose blood he just licked off, he should ask why Hyunjin is covered in it but he doesn’t. Instead he keeps his eyes closed, drowns in the feeling of Hyunjin’s hand stroking his hair and the last thing he hears before sleep takes him away is the sound of Hyunjin’s gentle chuckling right against his ear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the love and comments from the last chapter! My inbox filling with comment notifications honestly makes my day and motivates me to keep going (glad this story isn't dying!) hope you enjoyed this one and see you in the next one.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An extra warning, this chapter deals in implications of self harm! Please pay attention to the tags before moving forward.

[ ](https://ibb.co/J2mQpPB)

For someone like Jeongin, who has never had alcohol or smoked weed before in his life, the hangover that hits him the next day is agonizing. He feels like someone smacked him over with an iron pole and once he comes to his senses, the late afternoon light shining through the windows is completely unwelcome as he rolls over so his back is turned to the sun.   
  
“Oh my god.”   
  
It’s a whimper, barely louder than a whisper as Jeongin’s shaking hands come up to rub at his face. He feels like shit and in all disorientation, it takes him a moment longer than it should to realise there’s an arm around his waist stopping him from getting up.   
  
He turns around. Hyunjin is still sleeping next to him, he’s the one holding him down. The blonde is lying on his side, face exposed where it was tucked into the back of Jeongin’s neck.   
  
As Jeongin stares, he notes Hyunjin’s parted lips, the mess of his hair, how every ounce of viciousness and intimidation is wiped from his face and replaced instead with shameless beauty. Jeongin has to take a moment to fully process what he’s looking at here because he wasn’t aware someone could look so beautiful - especially whilst sleeping.   
  
His grip on Jeongin’s waist is firm enough that Jeongin would have to work to get it off him. Which, he realises with each passing second, he’s going to have to if he hopes to reach the bathroom in time to die from this hangover.   
  
He tries squirming away but Hyunjin only makes a sleepy noise and tightens his hold. Jeongin tries prying Hyunjin’s fingers off him but the other just groans and holds on tighter than before. The pressure on his stomach is making him nauseous as he gives up on the arm and starts shaking Hyunjin’s shoulder.   
  
“Mmmh….”   
  
“Hyunjin,” Jeongin pleads, his head is aching, it’s blinding how painful this is. Especially with the afternoon sun streaming endlessly through the arched windows.   
  
Hyunjin holds on tighter, his hand pressing against Jeongin’s stomach. “Told you,” he mumbles sleepily. “Puppy calls me master.”   
  
“I need to go to the bathroom,” Jeongin whimpers, his hand desperately shaking Hyunjin’s shoulder. “Let go of me.”   
  
“Call me master first.”   
  
A lurch.   
  
Oh god.   
  
Jeongin’s hand flies up to his mouth but it doesn’t stop anything. Hyunjin cracks an eye open and looks up just in time to see Jeongin choke and finally vomit. It lands on Hyunjin’s shoulder, down his arm, across his chest and a little on Jeongin’s knees. As Hyunjin shrieks and jumps back onto the floor, Jeongin leans over to vomit more on the space he just vacated and somewhere in the distance, Changbin, Chan and Jisung are cracking up laughing.   
  
Jeongin’s head is spinning. There’s an awful taste in his mouth, his vomit is all over the futon and floor now but what catches his attention when he looks up is the look on Hyunjin’s face. First shock and it’s quickly replaced with murderous anger.   
  
“You…”   
  
“Innie!” Felix gasps, flying to his side and wrenching the poor boy up to his feet. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”   
  
“Get HIM cleaned up!?” Hyunjin chokes as he gestures to the vomit splattered all over his front. “What about me!?”   
  
Jeongin is too sick to pay much attention and Felix outright ignores him as he rushes Jeongin out of the room with the others still laughing - this time at Hyunjin.   
  
Felix shoves him in the shower. Jeongin whines under the spray of the hot water but it does make him feel a little better. As he gingerly washes himself, he can hear Felix moving around in the massive bathroom.   
  
Chan’s shower has an array of shampoos, conditioners and treatments. Where Jeongin’s shower merely has one of each, precariously balanced on the rack that can’t hold all three bottles, Chan has an entire pharmacy right here in the shower. The rack is enormous and stretches along the left side of the wall. It’s stocked with shampoos and conditioners of different scents and different brands.   
  
The soaps are lined in much the same way. The water falls from the ceiling, hot and steaming but ultimately a relief on Jeongin’s muscles.   
  
When he comes out, Felix is there with a massive white towel that he immediately wraps around Jeongin without mind to his nakedness. He sits Jeongin down and hands him a glass of water with two little white pills.   
  
“Painkillers,” Felix explains as he brings out another towel to dry Jeongin’s hair. He’s gentle but considering the fact that Jeongin has the migraine of the century, any pressure on his head is agonizing. Still, he doesn’t complain and pops the pills into his mouth.   
  
“You know, in Aussie, the legal drinking age is 18,” Felix is saying as he rubs out the moisture from Jeongin’s sweet-scented hair. “But people tend to drink earlier if they can. Older mates can buy booze for them, or parents can bring it home. I started drinking around fifteen-sixteen. Somewhere around then.”   
  
Jeongin is trying to remember what he got up to last night. It comes to him in bits and pieces. He remembers coming here, being amazed by the sheer size of the mansion and he remembers the champagne. He remembers drinking with the sole aim of getting drunk.   
  
Mission accomplished, his brain chides him with another dose of pain to bring the point home.   
  
After that, it’s a little hazy. He tries harder to remember and unbidden, a memory of Hyunjin resurfaces. Hyunjin sitting in front of him, Hyunjin’s hands cupping a tunnel between their mouths and him inhaling…   
  
He gasps loud enough that Felix jumps in fright.   
  
“Holy shit,” Jeongin blurts as he stares up at Felix. “Did I smoke weed last night?”   
  
“You don’t remember?” Felix asks. “I’m not surprised, you were pretty hammered.”   
  
Jeongin groans and buries his face in his hands. He drank and he smoked weed with Hyunjin. His brain desperately tries to remember more but it’s all coming up blank. It’s probably for the best but he honestly can’t remember anything.   
  
He doesn’t realize Felix has stopped rubbing his hair until he looks up and sees the other is staring at something. He turns his gaze down to see Felix is looking at his wrists. Quickly, he puts them down and clears his throat. “Thanks for...cleaning me up. How long do you think Hyunjin will be mad at me?”   
  
It takes a little longer for Felix to snap into action. He sounds just as awkward as Jeongin feels but thankfully, he answers the question.   
  
“You might wanna give him a day,” he advises. “Don’t worry. We’ll hitch a ride with Han and Minho back home so Hyunjin can’t get at you.”   
  
He leaves for a moment and Jeongin discreetly turns his hands until the insides of his wrists are pressed against his knees and hidden in the towel.   
  
When Felix comes back, he has a white shirt and black pants with a belt and socks.   
  
“These are Chan’s,” he says as Jeongin slowly stands and takes them from him. “They might be a little big for you but at least they’re clean.”   
  
He’s not lying. Chan is quite a bit bigger than Jeongin, his shoulders are wider and he has more muscles but he’s shorter. The shirt fits awkwardly on Jeongin, hanging freely from his shoulders, oversized and baggy. The pants are worse and Jeongin has to fasten the belt to the last possible hole just to keep it from falling to his ankles.   
  
Once he’s dressed and ready, he looks up to see Felix looking a little awkward. He looks like he wants to say something but doesn’t know how to say it.   
  
Jeongin knows what he wants to talk about. He doesn’t want to, it’s not something he talks about to anyone. Least of all the people he suspects might be behind the Busan Disappearance case.   
  
Just as Felix opens his mouth, Jeongin cuts in with an eager: “Let’s go back,” he beams, smile brighter than it has to be. “Before they think we’re doing something weird in here.”   
  
It works. Felix grins and drapes his arm over Jeongin’s shoulders to lead him out and back into the hallway.   
  
“Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve done something weird in a bathroom,” he promises.   
  
The main ballroom is clean now. In the time Jeongin and Felix spent in the bathroom, the servants must have taken away the futons and scrubbed the floor clean. Everyone is up in various states of hungover and when Jeongin enters the room, the first thing he sees is Hyunjin standing with Changbin. The other is laughing at him but Hyunjin is clean now and wearing Chan’s hoodie - which seems to engulf him completely.   
  
“Innie, feeling okay?” Seungmin asks as Jeongin leaves Felix’s side to join him instead.   
  
There’s a sense of ease about them now, a familiarity born from getting hammered with them last night because Seungmin’s arm drapes over Jeongin’s shoulders as though they’ve been friends for years.   
  
“Man, you threw up all over Hyunjin,” Jisung is giggling. “That was classic, I wish I had my phone.”   
  
Jeongin sees Felix talking to Chan out of the corner of his eye and feels a twist of anxiety in his stomach when both look at him but he turns his eyes away. Instead he meets Hyunjin’s eyes and the scowl on Hyunjin’s unimpressed face seems to be permanent.   
  
“We should get going,” Jisung is saying. “God’s Menu might be closed tonight but it’s not tomorrow. We should use the day to recover.”   
  
“Remind me never to smoke weed again,” Minho mutters as he tucks himself under Jisung’s arm and seems to purr.   
  
Jeongin looks at Jisung warily. The man had been going at it hard on the drinking last night too. “Are you alright to drive?” he asks, concerned.   
  
“I’ll be fine,” Jisung assures him. “Now, who have I got? I’m driving Minho, Fe and you right?”   
  
That’s when Chan steps in.   
  
“Actually,” he says, his arm coming around Jeongin to pull him away from Seungmin. “I was thinking I might keep our newbie today. Is that alright with you?”   
  
Jeongin looks at him and pales. Felix must have told him. The smile on Chan’s face is disarmingly friendly and all the same Jeongin has a nest of vipers settling in his gut. Still, he can do nothing but smile and nod slowly.   
  
“Yeah...it’s fine.”   
  
Chan’s grin reaches his eyes, it’s a nice sight but the hold he has on Jeongin is pretty firm. Almost a warning.   
  
“I’ll drop you off home later,” he promises.   
  
Jeongin manages a smile but honestly, he just wants to go home. He doesn’t want to have to talk about something that happened too long ago, he wants to go back and sleep in his own bed. Still, he can’t deny Chan.   
  
The others say their goodbyes. Hyunjin keeps looking at him and it’s all Jeongin can do to keep his gaze down even as he feels Hyunjin’s eyes burning a hole in his skull. Eventually the other leaves too and Jeongin feels his body relax when he does. He’s not ready to deal with Hyunjin today, especially whilst he’s still feeling so raw from the party last night.   
  
When they’re all gone, Chan rubs his arm and gives him a smile.   
  
“Let’s go out for lunch,” he suggests. “I know just the cure for a hangover.”   
  
“Sleep?” Jeongin can’t help but suggest with a hopeful voice. It only makes Chan laugh.   
  
“Even better. Come on, my treat.”   
  
Chan has a lot of cars in his garage. Jeongin finds this out when he follows Chan to the garage and gapes at the line of cars parked side by side. He counts twenty in total, lined like a public carpark rather than a private garage. He gapes at the cars on display before following Chan to his car of choice.   
  
Jeongin has only ever seen convertibles on TV dramas. It’s quite a different experience to see one with his own two eyes. Sleek, shiny and silver. The top is already down and when Jeongin climbs in, he slides against the leather and has to hold onto the door to stop himself toppling completely.   
  
“I’ll drive slow,” Chan promises, sliding in next to him. “I love convertibles but the trouble is my hair.”   
  
Jeongin glances at him. Chan’s blonde locks are somewhat curly and long, he can only imagine that extended exposure to wind whipping his hair back would render it to something akin to a rats nest by the end of the ride. He tries not to laugh at the mental image but when he snorts, Chan grins with him.   
  
“I know, I need to get it cut too,” he agrees as he starts the car up. “Buckle up, Innie. I’ll drive slow but not that slow.”   
  
In the richest parts of Seoul - the parts Jeongin would never dream of entering - bright lights shine upon streets that never empty regardless of time. The high end restaurants that line the footpath are always immaculate, shining windows with not a speck of dirt on them reflect the well kept streets and the people rich enough to walk them. These restaurants are notorious for not displaying their menus and prices at the door - the general idea being that if you have to ask, you can’t afford it.   
  
Jeongin finds the same can be said for high-end Busan and when Chan flashes a black credit card, he feels his own bank card shrinking in shame as he steps into the restaurant and follows the waiter who seems to be falling over himself to assure Chan the best seat in the house.   
  
The floor is polished, Jeongin feels out of place in his clothes as he sees the expensive shoes, dresses and three piece suits of the other customers. As if sensing his discomfort, Chan reaches back to take his hand and keep him close. It looks like a sugar daddy out with his latest boytoy and although that thought runs through Jeongin’s mind, the staff don’t even blink.   
  
They’re taken to the second floor where a four seater table with a balcony and a view of the city awaits with two glasses of wine ready.   
  
“Ah, water for this one,” Chan says as they’re seated. He nods to Jeongin. “Not much of a drinker.”   
  
The glass is quickly taken away and replaced instead with a tall glass of water complete with ice, a lemon and a mint tastefully placed inside. Jeongin would laugh at the arrangement if he wasn’t aware that merely breathing in this restaurant costs more than he’ll ever make in a lifetime.   
  
Chan nudges the waiter. “And two painkillers please.”   
  
Jeongin leaves the ordering to Chan. One glance at the menu confirms he can’t read it and it’s not until Chan starts talking that he realises he’s speaking in French. The language rolls of his tongue like honey liquid. It sounds native to him but he can’t tell what it would sound to someone who actually is French.   
  
When the waiters leave, Chan turns to Jeongin and picks up the wine glass. He swirls the liquid about for a moment, his eyes watching Jeongin curiously and it’s more than enough to put him on edge. He has a sneaking suspicion he knows what this is about and he’s not sure who he wants to bring it up first, himself or Chan.   
  
“That was quite the party,” Chan comments after Jeongin has obediently taken his painkillers. “Parties are good. They encourage team bonding. I learnt that in management school.”   
  
“You went to management school?” Jeongin asks before he can think it through. As the son of the current prime minister and heir to a company fortune, naturally he’d have had to learn something about running it.   
  
Still, Chan just smiles harmlessly and takes a sip of his wine. “One of the many things daddy dearest made me do. Running a team isn’t easy, keeping everyone happy, settling conflicts before they blow up, making sure everyone’s on the same page - it takes some work.”   
  
Jeongin can remember his own father telling him that when he was promoted to chief of police. He swallows hard and looks down at his lap.   
  
“It’s hours and hours of trying to understand the people you employ. A bad manager would tell you that the main job is just making sure everyone shows up to work but it’s more than that,” Chan continues. His voice is somehow calming and Jeongin can’t look him in the eye. “It’s about making sure people are comfortable, happy. They need to be happy to work for you and if they’re not happy, there’s either something you can do about it or maybe they’re not the right fit for your company and that job isn’t their calling.”   
  
Jeongin bites his lip. “And me?” he asks quietly. “Did that party help you figure me out?”   
  
“A bit,” Chan smiles kindly. “It takes time to get to know someone and you’ll never see their real side if you get them drunk and stoned. I don’t partake in the stuff but some of my crew do - as you saw.”   
  
He certainly remembers Hyunjin telling him to. The tone of his voice sends shivers down his spine even when the other is nowhere near him.   
  
“Look, boss-”   
  
“Chan,” the other corrects him. “Call me Chan. Everyone else does, no one calls me boss.”   
  
Jeongin swallows hard and looks down. “...Chan, I know what this is about.”   
  
“I know,” Chan chirps. “You’re not blind, you saw Fe talking to me and it must have been on your mind all morning.”   
  
‘I don’t want to talk about it,” Jeongin blurts quickly. He turns his wrists down onto his knees and looks back to Chan. “I really don’t. It happened a long time ago, I’m different now.”   
  
Chan brings his right hand up onto the table and turns his hand around until his wrist is bared. There, in plain sight are three old scars running from the tip of his wrist down to the middle of his arm.   
  
“So am I,” he says, voice calm and quiet as he lets Jeongin stare at the marks.   
  
He brings his wrist back in and watches Jeongin, there’s not an ounce of hardness or judging in his gaze. Only light openness, a quiet trust that began with him. Jeongin feels his throat drying as he reaches for the glass and finishes it quickly just as the waiters come in with their food.   
  
It’s like a work of art. The flawless porcelain of the plates show no prior use. The food immaculately arranged to create what Jeongin can only imagine is pure art, complete with an emerald and crimson sauce to complete the look. He takes a moment to stare at it and in his head he can’t help but wonder how terribly crass it would be if he took a picture of it.   
  
They wait until the waiters are gone before speaking again. Jeongin looks at the elaborate array of cutlery and he doesn’t even know where to start. He’s heard of fine dining requiring more spoons than one person could possibly need but the line of knives and forks he sees lined immaculately beside his plate is absolutely ridiculous.   
  
“Start from the outside and work your way in,” Chan advises kindly.   
  
Jeongin swallows hard. He should probably eat something - god knows he threw everything up this morning on Hyunjin - but all that runs through his head is the sight of the cuts on Chan’s wrist.   
  
“Those were...deep cuts,” he mumbles.   
  
There’s a moment of silence and he’s not sure he’s said too much. This subject is sensitive for him, it must be for Chan as well. But before he can apologize, Chan speaks.   
  
“They were,” he nods. “You can tell with cuts. Which ones are for attention, which ones are for fun and which ones are serious,” Chan nods to his wrists. “Those were serious.’   
  
“When did you…?”   
  
“I was about fifteen,” Chan divulges freely. “I’d just gotten into a massive fight with my father about my future - he had plans for me, as you can imagine.”   
  
Jeongin nods. He can easily imagine that and Chan laughs.   
  
“Yes, I’m a cliche of rich boys,” he says. “Heir to a monster corporation, life planned out for me - complete with an arranged marriage. Father had it all planned out and I wasn’t to refuse him.”   
  
Hideously enough, it reminds Jeongin of his own father. His father had plans for him too and they didn’t match with the plans his mother had for him. Both parents had their own vision of what Jeongin could be and neither asked Jeongin himself what he wanted.   
  
Of course, if they had, Jeongin wouldn’t have known what to answer…   
  
“Arranged marriage, huh?”   
  
“Yeah,” Chan chuckles. “Known her since I was a kid. She’s a nasty piece of work and if I actually did marry her, it would be hell. Thankfully, my father’s ambition for power is more distracting than my marriage prospects so, for now, we’re safe from the Red Wedding.”   
  
Jeongin frowns and when Chan realises he doesn’t understand the reference, he sighs heavily. “You and me, Game of Thrones marathon. Eat something, it’ll make you feel better.”   
  
The plate simply looks too beautiful to pick at but Jeongin pokes the broccoli gently with his fork. It’s been beautifully steamed, not too soft and perfect in the mouth. Complemented with the meat and sauce, it melts in his mouth at first before kicking with the full flavour. His stomach growls in sudden protest, as though he’s just now remembering he’s hungry and he doesn’t hesitate before eating more.   
  
“I won’t ask you about yours,” Chan assures him. “It surprised Felix but he’s not the type to pry either. Your business is your business but if you need anyone…”   
  
The invitation is left open without him needing to complete the sentence and all the same, Jeongin feels that same twist in his gut. Anxiety. Chan can see him and although he’s never shown the other his wrists, he feels the same as he does if he had done so. Like he’s naked, all his shame out there in the open for others to laugh at and ridicule.   
  
It makes his heart beat a little faster. Half fear, half pure anxiety but before he has time to fully drown in it, Chan’s hand reaches across the table and takes his own. He almost pulls back but the grip Chan has on his hand holds him still.   
  
He doesn’t say anything. Jeongin stares, waiting for him to talk but he doesn’t. He simply holds his gaze, meaningful and loaded in his silence.   
  
“...thank you,” Jeongin finally manages to croak out. “I just...it’s a long time ago and it’s not who I am now.”   
  
Thankfully, Chan drops the subject and Jeongin is thankful for it. The air changes immediately when Chan starts talking about the restaurant instead.   
  
“I know it can be hectic sometimes,” he explains as he takes another sip of the wine in his glass. “Especially on special nights. Events like that are thankfully rare but they are the nights that will wear on everyone’s nerves fastest.”   
  
It’s too good an opportunity to pass up. Jeongin finds himself asking before he can really give himself time to think it through.   
  
“I’ve never known a restaurant to hold orgies,” he comments. “If you don’t mind my asking, what was that event?”   
  
To his surprise, Chan is happily candid about it. “That,” he says with a bright smile. “Is my father’s associates being the debauched, sinful bastards they really are. Stiff, high class politicians finally bringing themselves down from the heavens to play with the devils for the night.”   
  
Chan had said an English word that night. ‘Sacrifice’. Jeongin still doesn’t know what that means in Korean but he makes a mental note to look it up later.   
  
“I...feel sorry for the cleaners,” he comments quietly.   
  
Chan just laughs. “Don’t worry, they’re paid tenfold for a job like that. Nasty business but someone’s gotta do it. Besides, nights like that pay very well, you’ll all be getting bonuses next week for your work.”   
  
Jeongin smiles but he’s uneasy. Had that really just been a night about politicians dropping their shackles to fuck? His gut is telling him no but he hadn’t stuck around long enough to see the mess and he didn’t have any proof, it was just a gut feeling.   
  
When lunch is over, Jeongin feels a little better once he’s walked out of the restaurant with Chan. He feels less distracted by how out of place he looks in a place like this and more distracted by Chan. Had the other really just taken him out to lunch to talk about his old scars?   
  
They get back into the car and Jeongin doesn’t want to ask Chan if he’s going home yet. The other doesn’t say anything either. Not until they’re out on the open road and Chan starts humming under his breath.   
  
“I’ve got something I need to take care of,” he announces with a small grin at Jeongin. “Come with me? I’ll drop you off home afterwards.”   
  
Jeongin nods, he doesn’t see much choice in the matter. Chan steers them back towards the center of the city and as the rolling hills morph to tall buildings, Chan turns the conversation to a direction Jeongin hadn’t seen coming.   
  
“So, Hyunjin seems to have taken an interest in you.”   
  
Jeongin almost chokes, he has to turn his eyes to the window as he tries to keep his surprise from his face.   
  
“Does he?” he asks, his voice surprisingly steady. “I hadn’t noticed, everyone’s been nice.”   
  
“Everyone is nice,” Chan laughs. “Felix, for example, is nice to everyone and because he’s in the kitchen with you, he’ll be the one you deal with the most. Him and Seungmin. But Hyunjin taking an interest in anyone is surprising - he’s not the type.”   
  
Not until Hyunjin had ripped Jeongin’s cover right off him and left him vulnerable enough to become his puppy or whatever he has to be. Jeongin still feels bitter about how much his father had fucked him over. It still doesn’t feel like carelessness.   
  
Still Jeongin looks at Chan and feigns surprise. Given what he already knows about that psychotic bastard, the fact that he’s not known for taking an interest in anyone isn’t surprising. But Jeongin, sweet newbie Jeongin who hasn’t been working at Gods’ Menu that long, isn’t supposed to know that.   
  
“Really?”   
  
“It’s unusual for Hyunjin. He’s the kind who keeps to himself, doesn’t bother with talking to anyone unless he has to. Most of us have accepted that’s just something he does but he seems to go out of his way for you.”   
  
Jeongin clears his throat awkwardly and looks away. “Well...maybe I’m interesting?”   
  
That, at least, gets Chan to laugh. “Maybe you are,” he agrees easily and thankfully, that topic is set aside.   
  
Chan pulls into an underground parking lot of an insurance building. It’s a fairly large area but there is only one other car parked there. A white sedan parked close to the far corner of the area. Jeongin cranes his head and although the windows are slightly tinted, he can see a figure inside.   
  
Chan parks three spaces away from the car and turns to Jeongin.   
  
“I won’t be long,” he promises before climbing out and leaving Jeongin in the car.   
  
Jeongin watches as Chan then crosses the spaces and climbs into the passenger side of the white sedan. The windows are dark, he can see two shadows, Chan’s shadow is talking and the other is leaning away from him. As if he’s being intimidated.   
  
Then Chan leans in. Jeongin can’t tell what he’s doing but the driver seems to still. He isn’t leaning away anymore. Another two minutes and Chan climbs back out of the car with a brown paper bag in his hand. He closes the door before Jeongin can catch a glimpse of the driver and when Chan comes back into the car, he throws the bag to the backseat.   
  
“Alright,” he sighs as he starts up the car. “Let’s get you home. After last night, I’d wager you’re ready to sleep the rest of the day off.”   
  
Jeongin’s curiosity is burning. He looks back at the sedan and makes a mental note of the license plate as Chan drives away. He then turns his eyes back to Chan before the other can notice his distraction.   
  
“Do the parties always get that hard?” he asks, feeling nervous worms in his gut. “I mean, I saw the alcohol coming but not the weed.”   
  
“That’s Han and Hyunjin usually,” Chan corrects. “Sometimes Minho takes part too. I’ve stopped Felix doing it - I don’t want him getting into that stuff. I don’t get into it either, I like staying healthy.”   
  
It’s the way Chan talks about Felix that catches Jeongin’s attention. Why, of all his staff, had he gone out of his way to make sure Felix didn’t do anything like that?   
  
“I hope you can come to trust us one day,” Chan says as they near Jeongin’s house. “A workplace needn’t just be a place you go to to earn money. You spend most of your time with us, it makes sense to get to know us. We’re not that bad.”   
  
Jeongin is still dying to know what’s in the brown paper bag sitting in the backseat but there’s no chance to even take a peek. Not without alerting Chan.   
  
So when Chan pulls up to the house, it kills Jeongin to merely thank him and climb out but he doesn’t have any chance to look. To gain any upper hand in this situation at all. He thanks Chan for the ride and watches as Chan drives away.   
  
It’s only when his car is out of sight that Jeongin feels how tired he actually is. Not just recovering from last night but from this entire situation. His thing with Hyunjin, the fact that he still knows Chan is somehow behind the disappearances and at the center of it all is that godforsaken restaurant. Something is off. Something is seriously, seriously wrong and he needs to take some risks if he’s going to find out anything at all.   
  
He can see Minji out in the garden when he walks in. She doesn’t notice his presence, too busy talking to her flowers. Jeongin makes his way inside and the second he’s in his bedroom, a hand wraps around his throat and slams him into the wall.   
  
He recognises the scent before his vision clears and puts him face to face with Hyunjin.   
  
“Should have known you’d be here,” he croaks, a little winded because of the sudden collision with the wall. “Came to get me back for this morning?”   
  
Hyunjin smirks. “No one has ever thrown up on me before and if you were anyone else, I’d have gutted you for it,” he snarls and kicks the door shut before Onyx can walk in too. “Luckily for you, I need you for something.”   
  
Jeongin makes a squeak, his legs dragging as Hyunjin turns and throws him onto the bed. His arms instinctively come up to cradle his face too late before Hyunjin climbs onto him and Jeongin feels the cold, steel kiss of a blade against his throat again. It’s too familiar.   
  
He’s too slow to stop Hyunjin’s other hand gathering both his flailing wrists and pinning them to the bed, pushing them down above his head whilst his weight keeps Jeongin down. He swears he can see Hyunjin’s eyes turning red.   
  
“Okay, Innie,” Hyunjin sighs as though he’s not pinning Jeongin down with a knife to his throat. “Let’s have a little talk about your daddy, shall we?”   
  
Jeongin whimpers, the blade is cutting into his skin again and it’ll draw blood if he so much as breathes. Hyunjin doesn’t seem to care much. Still, despite the threat of actually being cut open like a pig, Jeongin somehow finds the guts to talk back to him. It’s like an impulse, he can’t help it, he’s sick of being scared by this lunatic.   
  
“Thought you were my new daddy,” he teases, yelping as the blade actually does nick his skin a little. A bit of blood ebbs down his neck as he gasps and continues. “Are you jealous of my old daddy? Don’t worry, I’ll wear a collar if you want.”   
  
He has no idea where this is coming from. Annoyance? A desire to see Hyunjin crack? Or maybe it’s replaced his former suicidal tendencies and manifested itself as a desire to be killed by this maniac but either way, Jeongin surprises himself with his own gall.   
  
Hyunjin laughs. “You’ve got some nerve talking to me like that, puppy. Sure, I’m not gonna kill you but I can do so much worse to you and you know it.”   
  
Jeongin’s legs kick uselessly and his eyes shine. “Do you want a shiny pink collar?” he offers, openly baiting him. “Do you want it to have your name on it, daddy?”   
  
This time the knife deliberately cuts another little nick against his skin and he yelps. Hyunjin leans down, blonde hair curtaining his pretty face as he holds the knife down.   
  
“Start talking, puppy, before I cut something off,” he warns. “Aside from his one and only son, did he send anyone else?”   
  
Jeongin wants to roll his eyes. “Why the fuck would he tell me if he did?”   
  
_Do you really want to die?_ His brain keeps scolding him. _What the fuck is wrong with you?_   
  
Once again Jeongin is reminded he really should be scared but he’s just not. Around Chan, he’s scared and cautious. Around the others, he’s as careful as he can be. But not Hyunjin. Perhaps it’s because Hyunjin already knows who he is and hasn’t killed him for it yet. Maybe Jeongin wants him to, maybe he’s leaning too heavily on the bet that he won’t but Jeongin just can’t find it in himself to be scared of him.   
  
Hyunjin seems to recognise it too because he sits up and takes the knife away.   
  
“Okay,” he says. “You’re not scared of the knife. Considering the state of your wrists, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised.”   
  
That gets Jeongin to stop struggling altogether. His eyes go wide as he stares up at Hyunjin.   
  
“You saw?”   
  
“Of course I saw,” Hyunjin scoffs and takes one of Jeongin’s wrists to rip the sleeve up and show him the old, white faded scars. “You think I looked into your real history and missed the glaringly obvious part where you ended up in a mental institution for four years?”   
  
Jeongin tries to snatch back his wrist but Hyunjin has it in a vice grip. He tries not to let the fear and emotion show on his face but it’s too late. Like a viper with his prey in sight, Hyunjin’s smile widens when he realises he’s hit a sore spot.   
  
“Get off me,” Jeongin hisses, trying to sound more intimidating than he feels.   
  
“Ooh, hit something did I?” Hyunjin teases relentlessly. “Tell me, did they put you in a straightjacket and spoon feed you for four years? Daddy dearest certainly did his best to make sure no one knew his son was a lunatic, he even signed you into the clinic under a false name.”   
  
“Hyunjin please!” Jeongin pleads, his eyes watering already with unshed tears. He doesn’t want to talk about this, he doesn’t want to go back there.   
  
“Call me master,” Hyunjin chides cruelly. “That’s something I’d like to see, you know. You in a straightjacket? That would be a sight.”   
  
Jeongin manages to rip his hand out of Hyunjin’s grip, without thinking he immediately slaps Hyunjin as hard as he can. The force pushes the other off his waist and as soon as he’s presented the chance, Jeongin brings one foot up and slams it into Hyunjin’s middle, kicking him clear off the bed and onto the floor with a loud thud.   
  
Jeongin’s body reacts on pure instinct. He grabs the blade Hyunjin tossed aside and climbs on top of the other before he can get up. Jeongin presses the blade to his throat and instead of seeing fear in Hyunjin’s eyes, he sees mild surprise and amusement.   
  
“Ah, so the puppy does bark,” Hyunjin teases and Jeongin doesn’t know how he can be so amused and calm when Jeongin has every single reason to slit his throat here and now. It would be so easy and he’d be free of the one person who knows who he really is.   
  
But he can’t do it and Hyunjin knows it.   
  
“Little closer to the jugular vein,” the blonde teases, his hand coming up to guide Jeongin’s grip towards the throbbing vein in his throat. “If you’re gonna kill someone, cut that vein.”   
  
“Are you insane?!” Jeongin gasps, his grip on the knife slacking until he drops it altogether. It lands next to Hyunjin’s neck with a light clatter. “Do you want to die?”   
  
“We’re all dying, puppy,” Hyunjin comments. “I just don’t mind being pushed to the front of the line.”   
  
Jeongin doesn’t even see it coming but he’s thrown off Hyunjin’s waist with a solid kick. He lands somewhere near the foot of the bed with a hard thud against the wooden flooring.   
  
He sits up in time to see Hyunjin pushing himself into a sitting position as well.   
  
“Of course,” the blonde sighs, his hand picking up his blade again. “If I were to be killed by you, that would be embarrassing.”   
  
He makes a jump for Jeongin and somehow Jeongin’s survival instincts win out. He scrambles aside to dodge and retaliates with a swift kick to Hyunjin’s face. The other lets out a small surprised yell that feels absolutely satisfying until Jeongin is whacked back with a punch to the gut.   
  
It’s all out then. Jeongin just wants this maniac out of his room and life, he throws a hardback book at the other and it hits Hyunjin square in the face. He has only a second to relish in the small yelp of pain before Hyunjin drops the knife and comes at him with fists instead.   
  
Jeongin fights for his life. Hyunjin slams his head into the desk and Jeongin kicks him in the gut. At one point Jeongin actually manages to gain the upper hand and sits on Hyunjin, his hands wrapped around Hyunjin’s throat and choking the other until he’s thrown off because he’d forgotten to pin Hyunjin’s hands down.   
  
By the time the sun sets, Jeongin’s bedroom is a complete mess. Books and clothes strewn all around the floor, the dresser is missing a drawer because Jeongin took it out to throw it at Hyunjin. The bed is a mess of fluff and feathers because Hyunjn’s knife cut a pillow open and is now embedded in the wall. Hyunjin and Jeongin sit at opposite sides, both bleeding, bruised and battered, breathing heavily and staring at each other.   
  
They’re silent for a moment. Both catching their breath and relishing in the damage they’ve done to each other. That black eye on Hyunjin’s left eye isn’t going to go away overnight and Jeongin is pretty sure he dislocated his arm at one point. He can taste blood in his mouth but he’s still pretty happy he managed to inflict as much damage on the other.   
  
Finally, Hyunjin breaks the silence.   
  
“Well, at least you can throw a punch,” he chuckles, his hand coming up to cradle his jaw. It smarts a little from when Jeongin socked him square in the chin. “Despite your scars, you’re no weakling.”   
  
“My scars don’t make me weak,” Jeongin snaps back, annoyed as he pulls his sleeves down to cover them again.   
  
“They do,” Hyunjin says and this time he’s not teasing. He’s serious. “They represent a time you wanted to check out early. That, to me, is weakness.”   
  
Jeongin wants to hit him again. He would if he didn’t ache everywhere.   
  
“But you’re mine now, and you don’t have the right to hurt my things,” Hyunjin says, gesturing to Jeongin and his body. “Only I have the right to do that.”   
  
Jeongin snorts. Hyunjin just spent the better part of the afternoon hurting him. He can still take his retaliation as a victory. Jeongin has the sneaking suspicion that no one hurts Hyunjin and lives to tell the tale. Somehow, he’s still breathing.   
  
“Now,” Hyunjin continues as if they hadn’t just been fighting. “Back to the topic at hand. Daddy dearest.”   
  
Jeongin feels himself give up. “What did you want to know?”   
  
Can he lie? Would Hyunjin see through it? Probably, but Jeongin still has a voice in his head telling him to at least try bullshitting him.   
  
“His age.”   
  
“53.”   
  
“Liar, he’s 49.”   
  
Jeongin can’t help it. He laughs and he can see the other laughing with him.   
  
“Why do you expect to believe a word I say?” he asks. “You’re asking me for information, you know I can lie.”   
  
“Yes,” Hyunjin counters. “But I’m counting on your will to survive to stop you from lying to me. After all, this is the man who didn’t cover your tracks and left you an open target for someone like me. This is the man who threw you away for four years, why be loyal to a father like that?”   
  
“Why not?” Jeongin teases. “I’m an obedient son.”   
  
Hyunjin’s eyes flash, the smirk makes Jeongin’s blood run cold. “The more I learn about you, Innie, the less I believe you’re as innocent as you seem. Maybe there’s another reason daddy dearest didn’t want to be tied to you.”   
  
Jeongin fights to keep himself from squirming at the implication. He can’t let Hyunjin have all the answers to his life. The fact that he already knows this much is bad enough.   
  
“Fine, so what did you actually want to know?”   
  
Hyunjin smirks. “Tell me something I wouldn’t find out in databases or newspapers. Something mundane only you’d know. What’s his favourite food?”   
  
Jeongin raises an eyebrow at him. All that for a mundane question like that?   
  
“Bulgogi.”   
  
“How plain.”   
  
“You asked.”   
  
He’s telling the truth this time. He doesn’t see what Hyunjin could do with that information. He watches the blonde and Hyunjin, frustratingly enough, doesn’t show any emotion on his face. Only a smile. An empty smile that reminds Jeongin of every single psychotic killer he’s ever seen on TV dramas. Hannibal Lecter would love Hyunjin.   
  
“Okay,” Hyunjin says, pushing himself up onto his legs as though Jeongin hasn’t spent the better part of the last hour kicking them. “I’m off.”   
  
“What, that’s it?” Jeongin scoffs. “You come here, kick my ass, cut my neck again all for a boring question like that?”   
  
“You’re the one who started that fight, not me. If you’d played along with me from the start, puppy, we’d both be in one piece.”   
  
Jeongin scowls, he can’t help it. He’s grumpy, he’s tired and now he’s sore. Hyunjin doesn’t seem any worse for the wear as he saunters to the door and lets himself out. Before he leaves, his pretty eyes turn to Jeongin and the smile he makes sends shivers down Jeongin’s spine.   
  
“You’d suit a collar,” Hyunjin smiles. “What’s your favourite colour?”   
  
“Fuck you.”   
  
He half expects to get smacked for that but all Hyunjin does is smile and leave. Jeongin listens to his fading footsteps and looks out the window to see the other leaving through the gate and out onto the streets. Only when he’s gone does Jeongin grab the only pillow that isn’t cut open and scream into it.   
  
\-   
  
The prisoner is whimpering by the time Chan pushes the heavy metal door open. In the heart of the freezer, sub-zero temperatures are enough to render the prisoner almost numb, completely incapable of normal brain function. Of course, he’s incapable anyway because he’s hanging with both arms tied above his head, fastened to a meat hook with his toes just barely touching the cold ground.   
  
At the sound of footsteps nearing him, he whimpers and yelps when someone rips his blindfold off and he comes face to face with Jisung, Changbin, Chan and Hyunjin.   
  
“So,” Chan says. “This one came from the Jeju restaurant? Sure he’s a pig?”   
  
“Positive,” Changbin confirms with a small grunt. “Checked all his sources, they’re three layers deep but any deeper and they come apart like cheap fabric.”   
  
“What do we do with this one?” Jisung asks. “Cut him up, fry him, serve him to his friends?”   
  
“Oh no, he’s an undercover cop, we treat these ones like special dishes,” Chan hums. “Any ideas?”   
  
It’s Hyunjin who speaks next, his eyes watching the prisoner like a piece of meat.   
  
“Bulgogi,” he suggests. “Let’s send a present to the chief of police in Seoul. He’s the one who sent this bastard, isn’t he?”   
  
The prisoner whimpers, he tries to fight his restraints but it’s useless. His entire body shivers and not just because of the cold.   
  
“Inventive,” Chan whistles. “I like it. Let’s do that.”   
  
Jisung leans in and takes the gag out of the prisoner’s mouth. “Any last words?”   
  
The prisoner is terrified. When he’d taken on this job to go undercover, he thought he’d be safe in Jeju. For years he was. Working quietly in the restaurant, slowly gathering information about the workers there. Now, face to face with Chan, he can see his life flashing before his eyes.   
  
His wife, his daughter, how old is she now? Probably about seven. He can see her hair, the scent of strawberry shampoo and he wants to see her again. Just one more time.   
  
Changbin reaches up to unhook his restraints and the prisoner falls into his arms like a limp doll. He’s placed onto a table and stares up at the harsh, glaring lights of the ceiling. He can hear his daughter calling his name, he can see her little pink dress as she runs around the backyard but he can’t move. He can’t move a muscle.   
  
But he can scream and when he feels a piercing pain shooting through his ankles, he screams in pure agony.   
  
“Binnie, you fucked it up,” Jisung chides the man as he bumps him out of the way and yanks the meat hook out of the prisoner’s left ankle.   
  
“The asshole has thick ankles!” Changbin complains but he stands back and watches as Jisung expertly pushes the prisoner’s ankles together, aims the meathook and drives it through so it pierces both legs.   
  
The prisoner would be wriggling if he wasn’t already half frozen. He’s screaming but no one pays any attention as Jisung then links the meathook to the chain hanging from the ceiling. Chan pulls on the chain until the prisoner is slowly pulled up to the ceiling, hanging by his ankles. Blood flows in a steady stream down his legs, he’s crying and choking at this point. The pain must be overwhelming and it’s all he can do to scream.   
  
It happens really quickly then. One flash of silver and the prisoner hangs dead from the ceiling, blood flowing freely from his neck where Hyunjin had slashed him open without hesitation. Jisung only just manages to get the bucket under the prisoner in time to catch the blood.   
  
“So,” Chan says, tone bright and cheerful as though there isn’t a man bleeding out on a meathook right next to them. “Bulgogi, you say? You sure the chief will like it?”   
  
Hyunjin smiles, puts his switchblade away and nods. “I have it on good authority he’ll love it.”


	5. Chapter 5

[ ](https://ibb.co/J2mQpPB)

**Sacrifice _(æk.rɪ.faɪs)_** _Verb_ To kill a living being and offer them to the gods.   
  
Jeongin stares at the definition on his phone but he still can’t quite connect it to what must have happened that night. Somehow he finds it easier to wrap his mind around the idea of an orgy than a sacrifice.   
  
If that’s what happened, what the hell did they sacrifice?   
  
_Or who?_   
  
The thought sends a cold shiver down Jeongin’s spine. He’d like to say the people he’s spent the last month with are not capable of such a thing but one thing he’s learnt since his first day at God’s Menu is that nothing is sacred or forbidden.   
  
Not to Chan, who is suspected to be part of the disappearances, not to Jisung and Minho who will fuck in public if given the chance and most definitely not to Hyunjin. The thought of the blonde makes Jeongin equal parts ill and fascinated. The other drives him insane and yet somehow there’s a freeing notion with the idea that Hyunjin is the only one who knows who he really is.   
  
Around Chan and the others, he has to be careful. Watch his words, watch his actions, make sure he doesn’t step out of line. It’s exhausting. But Hyunjin already knows and when left in a room, face to face with the psychotic blonde, Jeongin’s ability to care or even be scared of him as he ought to be, is replaced instead with an almost suicidal need to piss the other off.   
  
As nonsensical as that sounds, it sort of makes sense to Jeongin. Hyunjin is not his father, who always had unrealistic expectations of him. He’s not like anyone else in God’s Menu, who have no idea what Jeongin really is. Hyunjin did his research, probably found out everything that’s already on the public and private databases and drew his own conclusions.   
  
He doesn’t have any expectations of him other than a strange need to enslave the other. He doesn’t think Jeongin is anything other than what he really is and he doesn’t care. That’s the most important part, he really, truly does not give a shit and there’s something incredibly freeing about it.   
  
Left with only his own true personality, the first thing Jeongin does is rile Hyunjin up. Talk back to him, fight him, bite, punch, kick until the other is as bruised as he is. Until they’re on equal footing. It’s all about control, Jeongin is well aware of that, but it doesn’t stop him poking Hyunjin.   
  
Maybe one day, Hyunjin will actually snap his neck. He could. He’s faster than Jeongin and he’s far more psychotic. But he shows restraint even when Jeongin kicks and punches him.   
  
The door to God’s Menu opens and as Felix walks in, Jeongin flicks the tab away and puts his phone in his back pocket as he turns to greet him.   
  
“I have a question for you,” Felix begins, his face a mix of confused and curious as he comes up to Jeongin and leans against the steel bench. “About sex.”   
  
Jeongin’s eyebrows shoot up to his hairline. “I’m not sure I’m qualified to answer any question you might have about sex.”   
  
“Why?” Felix asks, big eyes batting at Jeongin a little too innocently. “Haven’t you…?”   
  
Jeongin thinks of cramped supply closets, grabbing hands and kisses that taste of cigarettes. He shakes his head. “No, I have. I’m just not sure I’m qualified to answer any question you might have about-”   
  
“Have you had sex with guys before?”   
  
Jeongin chokes and he’s too surprised to shield his emotions because that’s when Felix’s eyes grow wide as dinner plates.   
  
“Oh my god, you have!”   
  
“Shhh!” Jeongin hushes desperately. There’s no one else in the room but it’s still not something he talks about.   
  
“What’s it like?” Felix asks, his entire body leaning in curiously. He leans in so close that Jeongin has to lean back a bit just to keep his personal space.   
  
“Why are you asking?”   
  
“Because-”   
  
That’s when the door opens. Seungmin walks in and Jeongin takes this opportunity to head for the freezer to begin his morning setup without being bombarded with weird questions.   
  
Thankfully, the rest of the morning goes by uneventfully. Jeongin never throws himself so wholeheartedly into his work as he does but he dodges Felix’s weird questions quite skilfully until the afternoon when the restaurant fills with the lunch rush and Felix somehow manages to sidle himself right beside Jeongin at the bench.   
  
“So, about my question-”   
  
“Like I said,” Jeongin replies and he makes a point of wielding a sharp kitchen knife as he looks at Felix. “I don’t think I’m qualified to answer it.”   
  
Felix pouts. “But I don’t have anyone else to ask!”   
  
“You can ask me,” Seungmin chimes in from across the kitchen where he’s dealing with five boiling pots. “Ask away and I can tell you how ridiculous you’re being.”   
  
Felix makes a face and it’s quite disarming. Jeongin thought he’d been around the other long enough to immunize himself against Felix’s pouts and cutesy faces but apparently not because the other looks so tragically lost in that moment.   
  
He sighs. “Okay, ask away.”   
  
Felix immediately brightens and out of the corner of his eye, Jeongin catches a glimpse of Hyunjin passing the kitchen window. The blonde locks eyes with him and it’s only a tenth of a second but it’s long enough for a cold shiver to rush down Jeongin’s spine.   
  
He doesn’t hear Felix’s question and when time starts again, he looks up to see the other looking at him expectantly. Waiting for an answer.   
  
“Sorry, I wasn’t listening, what was that?”   
  
Felix laughs. “You’re so mean Innie, I’m asking for help here.”   
  
“Sorry, sorry, ask away, I’m listening now.”   
  
“Does anal sex hurt?”   
  
Jeongin’s knife slips and he nips the end of the carrot he was trying to cut. He looks up with wide eyes. Somewhere in the distance, Seungmin is laughing his ass off but Felix is totally serious.   
  
“I...wouldn’t know,” Jeongin finally admits just as the kitchen doors swing open and Hyunjin swans in. Dressed in uniform, his hair is tied in a ponytail with braids fixed in, Jeongin’s had enough time to look at his face but he still finds it hard to get used to just how striking the other is. It’s almost enough to make Jeongin forget how dangerous he is.   
  
He makes a point of not looking at the other as he focuses his attention on Felix. “I um...didn’t do that.”   
  
“Oh, so you topped?”   
  
_Please stop talking,_ Jeongin begs in his mind. He can see a smirk on Hyunjin’s face as the other collects the dishes he’d come for and swans back out just as gracefully as he’d come in. The other is going to bring this conversation up later, Jeongin can just tell.   
  
He turns back to Felix and clears his throat.   
  
“Um, yes. I’m not a...a bottom.”   
  
At least, he wasn’t before. His past trysts were quick, frantic and it was just circumstance that all his partners wanted him to top. Jeongin has stopped to think about it once or twice, his preference isn’t actually that concrete. Through experience and familiarity, he knows what topping is like, but he’s never been averse to the opposite.   
  
Some of his partners were. They were firm about their preferences but Jeongin, like everything else in his life, has never been.   
  
He wonders if he’s doomed to wander the earth with no strong preferences or desires. It was his indecision and lack of direction that allowed his father to take over and plan his life. Now it’s the same indecision that allows things to just happen to Jeongin. He doesn’t plan things, he doesn’t put himself out there to get what he wants because there’s nothing in life he really wants that badly.   
  
Only there is.   
  
This he realises when he catches a glimpse of golden hair in the window and his stomach tightens, a lump forms in his throat and his hands clam up. Is that fear? Or is it something else? He can’t tell but it’s stronger than anything he’s ever felt and it’s kind of terrifying.   
  
“It’s Binnie, right?” Seungmin cuts in.   
  
Jeongin blinks and looks up to see the other is addressing Felix, whose ears are turning into a lovely shade of rose. His cheeks as well, Jeongin can see the freckles disappearing beneath the blush.   
  
Seungmin however, isn’t quite as enamoured by the sight and instead huffs. “You two have been dancing around each other for years, would you hurry up and get it over already so you can join Minho and Han?”   
  
“It’s not that simple!” Felix exclaims, indignant. “It’s not!”   
  
“It really is,” Seungmin points out as he turns back to his work station. “The sexual tension when you two are in the same room is ridiculous. One day we’re going to find you two fucking like bunnies in the kitchen and no one will be surprised.”   
  
It astonishes Jeongin that Felix can turn so red but he’s almost the shade of a beetroot by now. After everything he’s seen in this restaurant, surely the thought of doing anything with Changbin shouldn’t affect him so much but it does.   
  
Jeongin can only pat his shoulder and get back to work.   
  
\-   
  
Hyunjin doesn’t approach him that night. Or the day after either. In fact, he leaves Jeongin alone for an entire week, long enough for Jeongin to put his reluctant agreement with Hyunjin to the back of his mind. He focuses instead on work - especially when Felix comes with questions he doesn’t want to answer.   
  
His devotion to his work pleases Chan and Minho at least. Chan, who likes seeing his kitchen running like a well-oiled machine and Minho, who keeps bitching that Seungmin and Felix (especially Seungmin) don’t work half as hard as their newbie.   
  
It’s exactly one week later that Jeongin is violently reminded of his arrangement with Hyunjin when he wakes up at 2am to a sound.   
  
At first, he doesn’t know what the sound is. Only that it woke him. When he sits up and looks around his room, he notices the open window before he realises the weight to his left, pushing down his mattress as Hyunjin slides into bed with him.   
  
“What the fuck?!” Jeongin shouts, his legs go to kick Hyunjin out but the blonde clearly prepared for that because that’s the first place his hands go. “Get out of my bed!”   
  
“Innie, it’s rude to kick people,” Hyunjin scolds and Jeongin wishes his eyes weren’t so bleary with sleep. He can barely see the other as it is. “Besides, my bed is freezing and yours is toasty warm.”   
  
He slides down and Jeongin squeaks when he feels Hyunjin’s cold bare feet against his warm legs. His arm flails out to flick the bedside lamp on and Hyunjin hisses at the sudden light that floods the room.   
  
Jeongin stares down at him. Jeongin’s bed isn’t that big but somehow Hyunjin has managed to squeeze himself in next to him. The other is dressed in a simple black shirt and grey checkered pants, his hair out, free and splayed on Jeongin’s pillow.   
  
It’s as though he’s been there all night, instead of two seconds after he climbed in through the window like a fucking ninja.   
  
Jeongin finally gets his bearings and slaps Hyunjin’s chest first, earning a sleepy whine from the other as he points to the window.   
  
“OUT!”   
  
“Innie, don’t be like that,” Hyunjin whines - actually whines - as he curls onto his side and snakes his arm around Jeongin’s waist. “Lie down and turn the light off.”   
  
“Get out of my bed!”   
  
Jeongin is seriously regretting his decision not to let Onyx sleep in his bed. He’d read somewhere online that sleeping with cats was bad for his health. It might be worse sleeping without Onyx if the alternative is a psycho killer.   
  
“Innie, are you going to lie down or am I going to make you?”   
  
No cutesy whining this time. Hyunjin’s tone and gaze changes so fast it makes Jeongin’s head spin. What was once playful and even feigned sleepiness is replaced instead with cold warning. His eyes darken, his grip tightens and his tone lowers a few pitches. Enough to make Jeongin’s spine freeze with familiar terror.   
  
Somehow, he manages to forget Hyunjin is as dangerous as he is until he’s all but threatening Jeongin’s life.   
  
_Stupid, stupid Jeongin. How do you forget what he can do to you?_   
  
Jeongin’s body obeys, he slides down until he’s lying next to Hyunjin and watches as the other leans back and flicks the light off. It takes a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness and in the time he’s trying, Hyunjin’s arm is back around his waist. A familiar embrace, almost a lovers embrace were Jeongin not sharply aware this guy is insane.   
  
“What do you want?” he finally asks, breaking the silence as he feels Hyunjin relax next to him.   
  
“Other than a bed?” Hyunjin teases.   
  
Jeongin has to bite back a remark that might get him hurt and instead makes a point of digging his nails into Hyunjin’s arm until the other gets the point.   
  
“Fine, you’ve sniffed me out. I didn’t just come here for your bed,” Hyunjin sighs though he doesn’t take his arm away. “I want info.”   
  
“I figured.”   
  
“What can you tell me about Kang Mogyul?”   
  
The name alone is enough to make Jeongin tense. All he can remember is intense eyes filled with inexplicable hatred, barked orders and hard hands. It’s enough that Hyunjin notices the change in him and lifts his head from the pillow to see him better.   
  
“Struck a nerve?”   
  
“Shut up.”   
  
“So I take it you know the asshole.”   
  
“Yes, and he is an asshole.”   
  
Jeongin wants to curl up but Hyunjin’s grip on him is stopping him. He doesn’t want to talk about that man, that horrible man who rules the police academy with an iron fist. Kang Mogyul is quite possibly the most evil man Jeongin ever had the misfortune to meet - next to Hyunjin himself of course.   
  
The man was in charge of the trainees of the police academy and god help the trainee who hadn’t met him yet. He was built like a brick wall, his uniform was always pressed, pristine and he demanded the same of trainees. He was violent, loud and he had a particular hatred for Jeongin that probably stemmed from the fact that Jeongin is the last person who should ever be training to be a policeman. At least in his eyes.   
  
Everytime he meted out punishments, Jeongin was always first on his list. Be that extra chores, extra exercising until his body was ready to collapse or - worse than that - physical punishments no one was allowed to talk about.   
  
“What do you want from him?” Jeongin asks and he can’t help but add: “Because if you’re planning on killing him, this is one of the few times I won’t object.”   
  
Hyunjin barks out a laugh so hard it makes Jeongin jump with surprise.   
  
“I’m hardly going to kill the man, Innie,” Hyunjin giggles after taking a moment to calm himself. “He’s one of Chan’s informants, he’s on our side.”   
  
“Of-fucking-course he is,” Jeongin groans. It figures the most evil man in that academy is working for someone like Chan.   
  
“What?” Hyunjin teases. “You think the police can stick their moles into our restaurant and we can’t do the same? We’ve got our own little moles all over the place, including deep in the police headquarters.”   
  
It fucking figures, Jeongin isn’t as surprised as he thinks he should be but it makes total sense when he thinks about it. Only a monster like Mogyul would be able to get away with the shit he does if he has a strong financial backer like Chan. Flash some money and anyone would turn a blind eye, they’d bury formal complaints, they’d do what they could to make sure Mogyul stayed right where he is.   
  
“So what did you want to know then?” Jeongin asks and he makes no effort to conceal his disappointment.   
  
Hyunjin’s arm is warmer around him as the other squirms a little closer and looks at his face.   
  
“Well, since you didn’t know he was one of ours, that pretty much answers my question,” Hyunjin hums. “See, Kang Mogyul is an asshole and though Chan trusts that money will keep him loyal, I’m less convinced.”   
  
“Can’t believe you pay that guy money to do what he does,” Jeongin mutters and he feels a little sick. “What use is he to you anyway? His main job is training guys like me.”   
  
“Who do you think gave you up first?” Hyunjin reveals and Jeongin’s blood runs cold.   
  
He stares up at the other with wide eyes. “He’s not supposed to know I’m undercover.”   
  
Hyunjin hums and slides back down to lie beside him. “He doesn’t. But when I asked about you, he gave me everything. Told me how much of a whore you are, how useless you’d be as a cop - honestly Innie, what did you do to piss that guy off?”   
  
“Existed.”   
  
Hyunjin laughs again and despite the situation, Jeongin finds he rather likes the sound. There’s something...innocent. Carefree about Hyunjin’s laugh and it feels completely detached from who he really is. Like a remnant of who he might have been had he not been as psycho as he is.   
  
“He’s how I found out about your...interestingly colourful past at the academy,” Hyunjin continues and he either doesn’t feel or doesn’t care about the fact that Jeongin is shrinking next to him. “Have you really never been topped?”   
  
Jeongin almost groans. He knew this was going to come back to haunt him the second he saw Hyunjin listening in on his conversation with Felix.   
  
“Let it go, please. I don’t want to talk about my sex life.”   
  
“I just can’t imagine you topping anyone - you’re so tiny.”   
  
“Fuck off.”   
  
Another laugh. Jeongin thinks he might actually lose his mind if he keeps making Hyunjin laugh. The stark contrast between the killer in his bed and the sound of his laugh is almost too much for Jeongin to wrap his sleepy head around.   
  
“So, police trainees like taking it up the ass?”   
  
Jeongin closes his eyes. Those first few months of police academy had been brutal. Torn from the life he knew, thrown into a glorified boot camp, Jeongin realised fairly early on that he wasn’t the only one struggling to cope.   
  
There were others. Boys his age. Thrown in here against their will, beaten daily by guards, tutors and Mogyul - seeking out comfort was inevitable. And as it turned out, the ones that went for Jeongin were also the ones who never wanted to top.   
  
“When Kang found out about them, he had each and every single one expelled,” Hyunjin says as though Jeongin doesn’t already know. “That’s why he called you a whore. He had them expelled but he couldn’t expel you - you’re the son of the police chief - perhaps that’s why he hated you?”   
  
Jeongin just shakes his head. It sickens him to think about it but that first stint in the academy - before he got his bearings and learnt how to keep his head down -was rough. Traumatising, even.   
  
“If that’s all you wanted to know, you can fuck off now,” Jeongin says. “Kang Mogyul obviously hasn’t let any clues that he’s not loyal to you guys - since we never noticed.”   
  
“You never noticed,” Hyunjin reminds him. ‘But you are observant - so chances are he’s still loyal.”   
  
It seems to be enough. Hyunjin finally climbs out of bed and Jeongin doesn’t bother sitting up. Instead he drapes an arm over his eyes and listens to the sound of Hyunjin walking back to the window.   
  
Before he leaves, Hyunjin pauses at the window and Jeongin can hear him. He doesn’t look up, doesn’t remove his arm until he hears Hyunjin’s voice - softer somehow.   
  
“Anything else I should know about Kang Mogyul before I must meet the asshole again?”   
  
Jeongin slowly lowers his arm. He pushes himself into a sitting position and looks at the other. With the moonlight shining in through his window, Hyunjin seems bathed in pure blue. His hair even seems to shine as he sits, one leg out the window already.   
  
Jeongin feels a lump in his throat and forces it down as he looks at Hyunjin’s eyes. They’re genuine this time.   
  
“You know how he punishes trainees.”   
  
“Yes, I know.”   
  
Jeongin’s bottom lip wobbles a little and he has to look down at the blanket to hold himself in. Does no one really care what that monster did to him? He knows his father would never believe him and his mother doesn’t want to. No one at the restaurant would care - Mogyul is on their side. A valuable asset they’ve sunk a lot of money in to keep him where he is regardless of what he does.   
  
Jeongin has known about this for some time. Not the Chan part, but he knew someone powerful was protecting Mogyul. That’s why he never said anything. Not when Mogyul whipped him with chains hard enough to bruise and cut skin. Not when Mogyul pressed lit cigarettes to his arm. Not when…   
  
“I’ve never been topped but I have been touched,” Jeongin blurts. His mind is too frazzled to catch up. It just comes out with no filter and nothing to stop him. “I knew he was too well protected, he could do whatever he wanted so I...I said nothing.”   
  
It takes only a split second for an understanding to cross Hyunjin’s eyes as he takes in the meaning of Jeongin’s words. What Mogyul must have done to him. But as quickly as the understanding is there, it’s replaced with indifference.   
  
“Yeah,” he says, cold and heartless. “And if you’d said anything, we would have buried you for it. Good thing you’re smart enough to know when to stay quiet.”   
  
It shoots through Jeongin’s heart though he knows he shouldn’t have expected anything else. Sympathy isn’t something Hyunjin is even capable of. Even so, this is the first time he’s ever told anyone what Mogyul did to him - to be met with such cold indifference hurts more than he realises.   
  
Hyunjin steps out and as fast as he entered, he’s gone again. Jeongin listens to him climbing down the drainpipe and when he’s sure the other is gone, he lets his tears run until they choke him.   
  
\-   
  
The car ride is silent on their way to the police academy. A short flight to Seoul had been uneventful and as Hyunjin and Jisung head for the academy, Hyunjin feels a strange restlessness overtaking him. It was subtle at first and he’d managed to distract himself on the plane by eating all the peanuts, chips and candy the air hostesses could get for him but now that they’re in the car, his finger keeps playing with the window button.   
  
Jisung watches silently as Hyunjin pushes the window down and then up again. Down, then up. His eyes flick to Hyunjin’s bouncing knee and he frowns.   
  
“Will you stop that?”   
  
Hyunjin looks up, his finger paused over the button.   
  
“Seriously, what’s up with you? You’ve been off since this morning.”   
  
Hyunjin turns his gaze back to his window and continues pressing the button.   
  
“Nothing’s wrong. I’m just...bored.”   
  
Jisung raises an eyebrow. He’s seen Hyunjin bored. A bored Hyunjin is prone to hitting up a spliff, he’ll jog around the block and play obnoxiously loud cat games on his phone. This isn’t bored Hyunjin, it’s restless Hyunjin.   
  
Jisung of course, knows better than to ask what’s wrong. He’s known Hyunjin too long to know the other will never tell him if something’s on his mind. That’s just one of the things about him, he’s not the sharing kind. Not like Chan and Changbin who tell him everything whether he wants to hear about it or not (and most times, he does not want to hear about how perfect Felix’s ass is but he and Chan are subjected to Changbin’s stories anyway)   
  
The academy shines in the distance. A tall, imposing structure of a building with the letters glittering in gold at the gates. As the car rolls to a stop, Jisung makes a point of climbing out first to meet Kang Mogyul at the gate. Hyunjin trails silently behind him as always.   
  
“Nice to see you again, Mr Kang,” Jisung greets, the picture of some important busybody. No one’s going to look into him. They see two men in suits greeting the head of the academy, not the truth of what it really is.   
  
Kang Mogyul is just as built as ever. He towers over Jisung and Hyunjin at six foot three and his grip is just as firm as he shakes Jisung’s hand. He doesn’t bother extending the same courtesy to Hyunjin, he knows the blonde doesn’t do handshakes. Or words.   
  
“It’s been too long,” Mogyul shines and the smile looks unnatural on him. He’s not the smiling type. “Follow me to my office.”   
  
Hyunjin follows behind. Jisung starts asking Mogyul about his work and about the trainees. Mindless light chatter and it’s what Jisung is good at when he has to do it. Hyunjin isn’t. Instead he’s quite happy to follow behind and let the two of them talk as his eyes trail over the academy.   
  
It’s not the first time he’s been here. Somehow both he and Jisung have managed to miss glimpses of trainee Jeongin but he’s seeing the academy in a new light now that he knows Jeongin. Out there on the field is where Jeongin would have had to run laps. Up on the second floor classrooms is where Jeongin would have taken his classes and somewhere in the dorms, he slept.   
  
Hyunjin wonders what it must have been like for him. Jeongin, who never had any direction in life, to suddenly find himself in a place like this.   
  
Mogyul laughs superficially at something Jisung said and Hyunjin swings his attention back to the man. Chan wants him alive. He’s useful so far. Providing just enough information about the force he works for and especially now, when Chan’s father is trying to reach presidency, the more contacts on the inside, the better.   
  
Even Hyunjin, who can’t be bothered with the intricate details of keeping moles, knows the man is useful.   
  
They finally reach Mogyul’s office on the sixth floor and as soon as the door is closed, the pretense is gone. Mogyul’s scowl sews itself back on his face and Jisung drops the smile as he watches Mogyul stop to his desk and sit down.   
  
“Why are you two here?” Mogyul snarls. It reminds Hyunjin of a dog in defense mode.   
  
“Chan asked us to give you this in person,” Jisung sighs, producing a brown envelope from his pocket and tossing it onto Mogyul’s desk. “He’s going to need you in the coming months. We’re here to assure your loyalty.”   
  
Mogyul almost rolls his eyes. “Chan needn’t worry about me. I’m loyal so long as you keep paying me.”   
  
“Keep an eye on your superiors,” Jisung commands. “I want to know everything. Where they go, what they do, who they’re fucking, everything.”   
  
Mogyul doesn’t look pleased but he’s not in a position to refuse. Not even as a smirk flits over Jisung’s face as he leans in. “So go kiss some ass, Mogyul. Snuggle up to your boss. I want a report on Monday.”   
  
That’s it. That’s all it takes. Jisung, satisfied with his work, turns to leave but Hyunjin stays rooted to his spot.   
  
They’re just supposed to go, pay him, put the fear of god in him and leave but Hyunjin can’t leave. Unbidden, he remembers the look on Jeongin’s face. The unshed tears shining on his face and he stares at the man responsible.   
  
It might be hypocritical. He’s done so much worse. Granted, he’s never raped someone before but he is a killer. Still, as he looks at Mogyul, all he can hear is the cracked tone of Jeongin’s voice. He knows that’s the first time Jeongin ever admitted out loud that something happened.   
  
“Hyunjin,” Jisung prompts and Hyunjin turns to see the other at the door, giving him a confused look. “Let’s go, we’re done here.”   
  
Then Hyunjin glances back at Mogyul and his mind is made up.   
  
“Wait outside.”   
  
“Hyunjin?”   
  
“Wait. Outside.”   
  
Jisung frowns but he clearly trusts that Hyunjin won’t do anything stupid - like kill their informant. He leaves and when the door clicks behind him, Hyunjin reaches to flick the lock into place.   
  
When he turns around, that scowl on Mogyul’s face has been replaced with a small sliver of fear.   
  
“What do you want?” he asks and he’s trying to sound intimidating but he can’t. He’s scared. Scared of Hyunjin who is slowly advancing on him and his desk.   
  
Hyunjin stops before him and taps his desk.   
  
“Sit here.”   
  
“What?”   
  
The switchblade is out before Mogyul even saw it coming. Hyunjin points it at him.   
  
“Sit. Here.”   
  
He’s in no position to refuse. He must be aware, just like Jisung, that Hyunjin is not stupid enough to kill him. They need him. So slowly, reluctantly, he rises from his chair and rounds the desk to sit at the edge, just where Hyunjin pointed.   
  
Hyunjin’s eyes are hard, his tone even harder as he taps the blade at Mogyul’s thigh.   
  
“Take them off.”   
  
“I-”   
  
The blade is against Mogyul’s throat before he can protest any more. Hyunjin sees fear in his eyes and he drinks it in. Good. Mogyul may be built like a brick wall but he knows better. He knows he can’t attack Hyunjin and he knows Hyunjin can’t kill him.   
  
That must be all that runs through his mind as his shaking hands slowly undo his belt and push his pants down with his underwear.   
  
Hyunjin looks down. Mogyul’s cock rests between his legs, flaccid and smaller than average. He taps the blade at Mogyul’s knee and hears the other take a sharp intake of breath.   
  
“Spread your legs.”   
  
“Chan will have your head for this.”   
  
“And I’ll stuff your cock in your mouth if you don’t spread your legs right now,” Hyunjin warns.   
  
Mogyul is shaking. His legs spread slowly and his cock slips between them. Hyunjin is acutely aware of the pink tinge of humiliation rising in Mogyul’s ears and along his neck. Veins press angry against the skin of his throat, as though he’s barely restraining himself from attacking Hyunjin.   
  
He could. He could easily overpower Hyunjin. But the consequences of such a grave error are enough to keep him pliant, obedient and rooted to the spot where he sits half naked on his desk.   
  
Hyunjin pokes at the cock with the tip of the blade and Mogyul actually whimpers. It’s an interesting sound, one Hyunjin doubts he ever makes.   
  
“You know, I had an interesting chat with one of your former trainees,” Hyunjin says, conversational and light. He can see the surprise on Mogyul’s face and he can’t help but smile. It surprises Jeongin too when he changes tone like this. “You have interesting ways of punishing your trainees.”   
  
“I don’t know what you’re getting at.”   
  
“Can you not get it up, Mogyul?” Hyunjin teases cruelly, the tip of the knife still poking Mogyul’s cock as a small reminder. “Is that why you touch little boys like your trainees?”   
  
Mogyul’s eyes flare and Hyunjin grins. Got it in one.   
  
Maybe Chan will scold him for this. Maybe Jisung will too but all Hyunjin can see is Jeongin’s pitiful figure in the bed. The way he shook, the way his voice sounded seconds away from bursting into tears. He looked so small in that moment, small and helpless.   
  
The reminder of the cracked tone of his voice is all Hyunjin needs to pull his arm back and send it and the sharp end of the blade careening straight into Mogyul’s crotch. The blade stabs right through his cock, piercing his testicles and embedding itself dead straight into the middle of his crotch. Mogyul immediately howls with pain as Hyunjin steps back and leaves the blade in there.   
  
He doesn’t need it. He’s got another one. Besides, there’s no way he’s touching anything that’s been near Mogyul’s cock.   
  
He takes his phone out to take a picture and he makes sure to catch the pained look on Mogyul’s face as well as the blood pouring out onto the desk as the other writhes around trying to deal with mind-numbing pain.   
  
“Nice doing business with you, Mogyul,” Hyunjin says through the sounds of Mogyul’s agonized screaming. “Step one toe out of line and I’ll come back to chop it off and feed it to you.”   
  
With that, he unlocks the door and leaves.   
  
Jisung meets him at the gates, his eyes wide with alarm as he sees the splotches of blood on Hyunjin’s sleeve.   
  
“What the hell did you do?!”   
  
The car pulls up to them and Hyunjin gives Jisung a small look before he climbs in.   
  
“I just made sure he’d stay loyal.”   
  
\-   
  
Jeongin looks up when the backdoor to the kitchen opens. Normally, the only people who appear through that door are either the kitchen staff, Chan, Changbin or Jisung but this time, a girl appears.   
  
She’s got to be in her early twenties, beautiful, dripping in money with the way she dresses. Her caramel brown hair perfectly done up in ringlets, the glittering emerald dress she’s wearing costs more than Jeongin’s annual wage. Her heels shine in the light, not a line out of place with her makeup and when Felix sees her, he immediately turns around to busy himself with the bench.   
  
“Kaeun.”   
  
Jeongin looks up to see Chan standing near the door between the main area and kitchen. He doesn’t look impressed to see her, his arms folded and brows furrowed in an unimpressed scowl.   
  
The girl, Kaeun, smiles at the sight of him though. “There you are.”   
  
Jeongin catches a soft lilt in her voice, honed with years and years of careful training no doubt. She speaks like a high-end girl in her financial position would. Above the common rabble indeed, she’s the closest thing Korea has to royalty. The daughter of someone important, no doubt.   
  
Chan crosses across the kitchen and Jeongin doesn’t miss the way Chan’s hand brushes over Felix’s shoulder as he passes. He takes Kaeun back out the way she came and follows her out, closing the door with a decisive click after them.   
  
Felix relaxes the second her perfume leaves the air.   
  
“Who was that?” Jeongin can’t help but ask.   
  
Seungmin looks sympathetic and Jeongin catches sight of Minho through the window. Even he’d noticed the temporary disturbance.   
  
“That was Kaeun,” Seungmin finally explains for Jeongin’s sake. “Chan’s fiance.”   
  
\-   
  
There’s nothing gentle in the way Chan forces Kaeun to sit down when he enters his office. Changbin, who was sitting at the desk, looks up at the intrusion and immediately gets up as Chan rounds the desk to get away from her.   
  
“Hey, this dress cost more than your restaurant makes in ten years!” Kaeun snaps as she straightens herself and glares at Chan.   
  
“I told you to meet me here in the office, not the kitchen,” Chan warns.   
  
He’s in a foul mood, Changbin scoots himself away from the chair so Chan can sit instead. The only other seat in the office is right next to Kaeun and Changbin doesn’t want to go there so he awkwardly stands himself in the corner instead.   
  
He’s not allowed to leave. Not when Kaeun is alone with Chan.   
  
Kaeun scowls. “I see you’ve still got that boy in your employ.”   
  
“Just because you don’t like Felix, doesn’t mean I’m obligated to fire him,” Chan says, almost exhausted. “Get to the point, Kaeun. What do you want?”   
  
Kaeun adjusts herself, as though the seat is uncomfortable. It probably is, it’s definitely cheaper than what she’s used to sitting on.   
  
“I’ve come to ask you to do something for me,” she finally says, having apparently given up on the chair.   
  
Chan barks a laugh. “For you? Why the fuck would I do anything for you? If you told me to breathe, I’d hold my breath.”   
Kaeun looks disgruntled but remarkably, she soldiers on. “My daddy says the expense of keeping me happy is something my future husband should be doing, not him. So, my living expenses should now be handled by you.”   
  
Chan laughs even harder then. Forced, spiteful but also somehow amused. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. I’m not spending a single cent on you.”   
  
“You will, if you know what’s good for you.”   
  
“Your father is an asshole but he’s also too busy to concern himself with your problems,” Chan tells her. “If you go back home and tell your daddy that I won’t pay for you, he won’t do a fuckinng thing about it. He’ll just stop paying your expenses and expect you to solve the problem.”   
  
Kaeun looks furious and Changbin has to wonder how she thought this would work. She must have known that Chan would tell her no so why did she bother coming to ask anyway?   
  
“My father spends a lot supporting yours,” Kaeun finally says. “Supporting your ambitious worm of a father as he crawls his way towards presidency. This marriage is to assure that I end up married to the son of the president and that your father makes it there at all. It’s in your best interests to look after me.”   
  
“It’s in my best interests to postpone our wedding as long as humanly possible so I don’t have to live with the fact that you’re my wife,” Chan snaps back, still a little amused she’s trying so hard. “Go fuck yourself, Kaeun. I’m not doing a thing for you.”   
  
Kaeun gets up and Changbin keeps his face unreadable as she turns her eyes to him instead. She doesn’t like that he’s always in their meetings but it’s for her own good. Changbin is there to stop Chan killing her, he knows he’d love to.   
  
“Fine,” Kaeun says, a fake smile plastered onto her pretty face. “Fine, Chan. Let’s play. You may be untouchable but your friends aren’t. Especially Felix.”   
  
She leaves before either of them can retaliate and when the door slams shut behind her, Changbin turns to Chan who just looks exhausted.   
  
“Chan-”   
  
“Not now, Binnie, I’ve got a migraine.”   
  
“Chan, take this seriously,” Changbin can’t help but croak. “She’s threatening Felix and she’s right. She can really hurt him, she has the resources to do it.”   
  
Chan runs a hand through his hair, he looks agitated and Changbin knows not to push it but he can’t help but be worried too. It’s about Felix after all.   
  
“I’ll figure out something,” Chan promises.   
  
Changbin doesn’t feel reassured.   
  
\-   
  
Jeongin puts away the last dish of the night. Lock up duty is his tonight and it’s just as well because after the appearance of Chan’s fiance, Felix has been off all day.   
  
Minho and Seungmin go home first and before Felix can clock out for the night, Chan appears in the kitchen. He comes up to Felix and rubs his arm.   
  
“Come home with me,” he tells the other. His voice is low but gentle.   
  
Felix looks confused but he nods as Chan and waves at Jeongin as he follows him out.   
  
The door closes and finally, Jeongin is left alone. He washes the benches, checks that the main area is clean before locking the front door. When he steps back into the kitchen, he jumps at the sight of Hyunjin standing at the back door.   
  
“Fucking hell,” he scowls. “At least announce your presence, This restaurant is creepy at night!”   
  
A wry grin snakes over Hyunjin’s face and Jeongin ignores him as he goes about making sure everything else is in place. He’s tired, it’s been a long day and he wants to go home but just when he goes to lock the freezer, Hyunjin is suddenly at his side and holding his wrist still.   
  
Jeongin glares at him. “Whatever you’re plotting, I’m not in the mood.”   
  
Hyunjin tilts his head. Pretty eyes scanning Jeongin and it’s almost enough to make him feel self-conscious. Almost.   
  
“...what?”   
  
“I brought you a present,” Hyunjin tells him sweetly. “Don’t you want to see?”   
  
Jeongin doesn’t. He really doesn’t want to know what thing in Hyunjin’s twisted mind counts as a present but he stays silent and Hyunjin takes that as a yes. Jeongin leans against the freezer door, folding his arms as Hyunjin digs his cellphone out of his pocket and flicks through the photos for a moment.   
  
Then he shows him. It’s Kang Mogyul, mid-scream and it takes Jeongin a second to look down and realise why. His eyes go wide, his skin pales and he’s speechless.   
  
“I...I…”   
  
“Perhaps I should have cut off his hands, but unfortunately he needs those,” Hyunjin tells him, finally putting the phone away again.   
  
“Are you insane?!”   
  
Hyunjin levels him with a dull look, as if to say ‘bitch, I already am.’   
  
Jeongin jumps back from the door, he shakes his head and runs a hand through his hair. “Did you kill him?”   
  
“No, like I said, we still need him alive,” Hyunjin shrugs. “But nothing in Chan’s agreement with him needs his cock so that was free for the taking.”   
  
Jeongin stares at him, he’s insane. He’s absolutely insane but the smallest part of his shocked brain whispers that Hyunjin wouldn’t have done it if he didn’t know what Mogyul had done to Jeongin. That he’d done it for Jeongin. The gesture is insane but in some fucked up, twisted part of Hyunjin’s world, that’s what counts as his affection.   
  
Jeongin just doesn’t know what to do about it. Is Hyunjin going to keep mutilating anyone who hurts him? Is he okay with that? Jeongin knows that Chan isn’t going to like this, if he hasn’t already, he’s going to punish Hyunjin for it and yet Hyunjin had done it anyway.   
  
He...cares.   
  
Jeongin doesn’t know what to think about that, about any of it. So he does the first thing that pops to mind. He steps closer, grabs the lapels of Hyunjin’s shirt and pulls him in for a kiss.   
  
It takes him by surprise but what surprises him more is when Hyunjin kisses him back. He can feel Hyunjin’s hands gently resting at his waist and leans in. It’s been awhile since anyone’s touched him, it feels nice.   
  
Jeongin’s mind is racing. At first he thinks Hyunjin is just kissing back instinctively but then when Hyunjin tilts his head and deepens the kiss, Jeongin squeaks. He feels Hyunjin’s hand at the back of his head, fingers threading through his hair with a gentleness Jeongin isn’t even aware Hyunjin was capable of.   
  
Then the door opens again, this time loudly and the two break apart in time to see Jisung walking in. He looks at the two of them and settles his eyes on Hyunjin.   
  
“We need to talk about what you did today,” he tells him before turning his eyes to Jeongin. His tone is considerably softer when addressing him. “Innie, did you finish cleaning up?”   
  
Jeongin’s face threatens to burn red as he nods and quickly goes to grab his bag. “Should I lock everything?”   
  
“No need,” Jisung assures him. “I’ll lock up. Just need to talk to Hyunjin first.”   
  
Jeongin spares a glance at him. Hyunjin isn’t looking at him, he’s glaring at Jisung but his lips are a little swollen. It sends a small thrill up Jeongin’s spine as he pulls the key from his pocket and hands it to Jisung.   
  
“Night, Innie,” Jisung smiles. Jeongin glances at Hyunjin once more and this time, Hyunjin is looking at him. His eyes are burning.   
  
Jeongin swallows the rush of arousal that threatens to shoot through him, he breaks the eye contact and heads out into the cold night air.   
  
It’s only when he’s outside that his lips start to tingle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year guys! My oh my Hyunjin's gotten himself in trouble hasn't he?  
> Thank you for all the love and comments! I know I don't reply to them but rest assured each and every comment is loved and definitely serves as fuel for writing the next chapter :)  
> As most writers would attest, it's how you feed them XD  
> See you next time!


	6. Chapter 6

[ ](https://ibb.co/J2mQpPB)

Jeongin rolls over in bed and glares at the alarm clock. The glowing red numbers read 3:45am and here he is. Still awake.   
  
He stares up at the inky black that is his ceiling and slowly lifts a hand to brush his fingers gently over his lips. They’re still tingling. He can feel Hyunjin’s hands holding him, the soft plush of his lips and the butterflies that coil in his stomach don’t lie to him - though he dearly wishes they would.   
  
Unbelievable. Attracted to a psychopath like him.   
  
Jeongin hasn’t forgotten that Hwang Hyunjin is dangerous. At least, his mind hasn’t forgotten. His body is an entirely different matter and it betrays him by tingling and squirming like a teenager with a crush.   
  
Unbidden, he remembers the feel of Hyunjin’s hand in his hair. The way he’d made him feel when he realised Hyunjin had mutilated Kang Mogyul for him. Maybe he should feel more horrified for Mogyul but he doesn’t. Instead, he feels something close to….touched? Flattered? A warming feeling that Hyunjin had done it for him.   
  
By the sounds of Jisung’s tone, there will be consequences and against his own rational mind, Jeongin finds himself hoping the consequences won’t be so drastic they take Hyunjin away from him.   
  
It would work if Hyunjin were removed from the picture. He could get back to his mission, find out if Chan really is behind the disappearances without fear of any of them finding out if he’s careful enough. But there’s a side of him, an annoyingly loud side, that wants him to live.   
  
Jeongin isn’t stupid….okay maybe he is. He recognises what he’s feeling well enough. He felt it plenty of times back at the academy when he caught sight of someone he wouldn’t mind crowding into a closet with him. It’s attraction and he has eyes, Hyunjin is the kind of beautiful no one can ignore.   
  
But he’s psychotic. He’s dangerous. He just fucking kebabed Mogyul’s dick without remorse.   
  
Groaning to himself, Jeongin rolls over in bed again. His blankets and sheets are twisting beneath him from all the wiggling he’s done tonight but he can’t find it in himself to care much. His mind is a mess and come morning light, he’ll come to three decisions.

  1. He needs to find out what is happening with those people who disappeared and just how involved Chan is in that.
  2. He needs to keep his head down in Gods Menu and gather all the evidence he can so he can somehow send it back to his father.
  3. He needs to stay away from Hwang Hyunjin.



  
\-   
  
Avoiding Hyunjin proves to be the hardest one because the second Jeongin walks into the kitchen the next morning, he comes face to face with the man himself. He almost walks right into him but stops at the very last second with a startled squeak when he looks up and meets his eyes.   
  
“Morning, Innie,” Hyunjin purrs.   
  
Jeongin mumbles a hello and ducks away from him, he skitters to the bench where Seungmin is already taking out the meat from the freezer. He can feel Hyunjin’s eyes on his back as he hurries to give Seungmin a hand with carrying the frozen meat out and laying it on the middle bench.   
  
The morning routine is set in stone. Setup at 8am, open at 9am and from there the kitchen is a busy place. Jeongin feels himself relax when Hyunjin ducks into the main room to start his job but as he lays the packs of wrapped meat out on the counter, the sticker in the corner of the wrapping catches his eye.   
  
It’s just a little white sticker with the word RACHA written in black ink.   
  
“Racha?” Jeongin frowns as Seungmin brings out the last piece of meat. “Is that where we get our supplies?”   
  
Seungmin nods. He pushes the freezer closed at last and pats the pack of meat on the counter. “Our suppliers are all over South Korea but Racha is the main supplier of the meats. The vegetables come from farmers in Daegu and Busan. Sometimes we get imported stuff from Japan, Philippines, Indonesia and New Zealand.”   
  
Jeongin’s eyebrows rise but he supposes it makes sense. He’s never worked in a restaurant before so maybe this is standard practice. Still, he looks at the sticker and makes a mental note to research the company later.   
  
Felix comes in with Chan close behind him. Chan’s face is a little serious and he has one hand on Felix’s shoulder as he steers him in and stops him in front of Jeongin and Seungmin.   
  
“If my bitch of a fiancee comes,” Chan tells them as he gently pushes Felix towards them. “Keep her away from him.”   
  
Seungmin doesn’t seem surprised, he nods and heads to his station but Jeongin is the picture of confused. He shoots a questioning look at Chan but when he doesn’t receive an answer, Felix pats his arm.   
  
“It’s okay, Innie,” he tells him. “She just doesn’t like me and...well she’s crazy.”   
  
“Counting on you two,” Chan calls as he pats Felix’s shoulder one more time before sweeping out as quickly as he’d come in.   
  
Felix takes a deep breath and smiles uneasily at Jeongin. He looks like he’s alright but it’s obvious on his face, something shook him. Jeongin remembers Kaeun of course, he remembers the look she’d shot at Felix but he didn’t think much of it. This is clearly more serious than he realised.   
  
“Are you going to be okay?” he can’t help but ask as Felix starts to set up for the morning. “Is it that bad?”   
  
“It’s...she hates me,” Felix explains, still a little uneasy as he sets the vegetables aside. “And she’s psychotic. She threatened to hurt me when Chan wouldn’t do something she wanted so now Chan is kind of...guarding me,” he winces. He doesn’t seem too content with that. “He’s a little overprotective.”   
  
Seungmin doesn’t seem to want to get involved. He has his corner and he doesn’t make a comment but every now and then, Jeongin sees him eyeing the door, as though afraid Kaeun will storm in right then and there to shoot them all.   
  
\-   
  
“I think you need to send him away.”   
  
Chan takes two pills and chucks them back with a cold bottle of water. He has an aching migraine and Changbin hovering like this isn’t helping but he does understand his worry. Changbin is protective and loving of all the members but especially Felix - whom he has had ridiculously passionate feelings for for years.   
  
“Binnie, he’s safe here,” Chan assures him. “What do you think will happen? She’ll barge in here with a shotgun and shoot holes in him?”   
  
“The only reason she hates him so much is because she thinks you’re cheating on her with him,” Changbin points out with an annoyed huff.   
  
A wry grin snakes across Chan’s lips. “Well, she’s not wrong,” he hums. “I am cheating on her. But not with Fe.”   
  
“Tell her that,”   
  
“I did and I’m not trying that again,” Chan sighs. “Binnie, baby, just leave it. He’s safe where I can keep an eye on him and I can keep an eye on him at work.”   
  
Changbin doesn’t look placated. He only pouts more but both their attention is taken when the office door opens and Jisung appears.   
  
“How’d it go with Mogyul?” Chan asks after rubbing his face. “And please give me good news.”   
  
Jisung shoots a wary look at Changbin. He reaches behind him to flick the lock and when it clicks into place, Chan groans.   
  
“Fuck, what happened?”   
  
Jisung takes his time. He sits down in front of the desk and takes a moment to think through what he’s about to say.   
  
“I’ve already dealt with it,” he assures them both. “So before you guys freak on him, I’ve handled it. I’ve warned him and if he does it again, I’ll be the one to bash his head in.”   
  
Chan and Changbin’s faces darken and Jisung continues. “The meeting with Mogyul went fine, until Hyunjin kebabed his balls with his dagger.”   
  
Changbin and Chan both turn pale. Frozen to their spots and staring at Jisung with disbelief at first, then realisation that yes, yes Hyunjin would do that if he had reason to.   
  
“Why?” Chan asks first, Changbin seems to have trouble wrapping his head around this.   
  
To that, Jisung can only shake his head. “We all know Mogyul’s a creep. No love lost there but he is a valuable snitch and if word gets out about this, we’re going to have trouble keeping them all in line.”   
  
“Fucking hell,” Changbin growls, he paces the office angrily for a moment before he points a finger at Jisung. “Bring him in.”   
  
“Fuck, no, I said I handled it!” Jisung insists. “And I did! If Hyunjin steps one toe out of line, I’ll know about it. But if I bring his ass in here for both of you to eat him alive, he’s going to...both of you know he’s a loose cannon! We barely have him under control!”   
  
Chan lifts a finger and it works, Changbin calms immediately. He comes back to Chan’s side as Chan turns his attention back to Jisung.   
  
“Watch him,” he orders in a steady voice. “Hyunjin is a loose cannon but he doesn’t do things like that without reason. He had a reason for doing it this time, this is not the first time he’s met Mogyul so something set him off. I want to know what it was.”   
  
Jisung nods and as he gets up, Changbin takes a deep breath.   
  
“Chan,” he says. “We don’t have the manpower to keep an eye on Hyunjin, not right now. Not with your father aiming to be the next president.”   
  
Chan makes a growling noise as though he just remembered that.   
  
“Speaking of,” he says, annoyed but quietly determined. “Han, I need you to help me arrange an event at Gods Menu within two weeks.”   
  
Jisung nods where he’s paused at the door. “Another event like last time?”   
  
“No, not like last time,” Chan says and his tone gives both Changbin and Jisung pause. It’s heavy and laced with hesitance, as though he really doesn’t want to say what he’s about to say next. “My engagement party. Father needs her father’s company to back him.”   
  
Changbin looks horrified. “Chan-”   
  
“The sooner I marry her, the sooner I can get her off Felix’s ass,” Chan promises. “It’s going to happen sooner or later anyway. If I marry her, it gets her father’s support for my father’s cause and it gives me the power to keep her busy and away from Felix.”   
  
Jisung is silent, he’s watching Chan worriedly but just like Changbin, he gets it. He understands the logic behind Chan’s reasoning and as unfair as it is, it will happen eventually. It has to. Because unless Chan starts saying no to his father, he’s always going to adhere to his wishes and do whatever he can to earn his approval.   
  
As he’s always done.   
  
\-   
  
Despite Jeongin’s fears that Chan’s fiance will just waltz in and shoot Felix, nothing happens that day. Or the day after that, or the day after that. Felix stays with Chan after work and Jeongin begins to understand that whatever’s going on, Chan has no intention of letting Felix out of his sight.   
  
“They’re like brothers,” Minho explains one night when Jeongin brings it up after Chan takes Felix away at the end of his shift. Tonight the close-up job is left to both Minho and Jeongin. “Felix and Chan are both Australian, so there’s that. It’s an instant connection, especially when one is overseas.”   
  
He catches Jeongin’s slightly confused look and grins. “You’ve never been overseas, have you?”   
  
Sheepishly, Jeongin shakes his head and Minho finishes wiping down the counter before throwing the cloth away and turning to face him.   
  
“So...it’s like being away from home. Away from everything that you find familiar and comforting,” he explains easily.   
  
Jeongin can’t help but compare that to his own situation. In Busan. Away from his home, his family, mixed up with people he’s fairly certain have something to do with disappearances or even murders. Not a comfortable situation.   
  
“Being overseas, especially alone, is like being thrown in a cold pool with nothing to help you float,” Minho explains. “Especially if said country speaks a different language. In such a situation, looking for familiarity is normal. For Felix, that was Chan and vice versa.”   
  
Slowly, Jeongin nods. “But hasn’t Chan been here longer?”   
  
“He has. But he was still raised in Australia and to him, Felix represents everything that is his childhood and home. It’s like having a little comforting piece of home with him all the time,” Minho continues with a friendly nod. “I’ve been overseas myself, you see. So I get it, I tried looking for any piece of home too, just for comfort. I never had my own Felix but I had my cats.”   
  
“You and your fucking cats,” Hyunjin’s voice groans from the doorway.   
  
Jeongin can’t help but freeze. He hadn’t realised Hyunjin was still here.   
  
Minho looks a little surprised too but he recovers much faster and a scowl quickly replaces his pretty feline features. “Hyunjin,” he sighs. “Thought you’d gone home already.”   
  
“Got something to do,” Hyunjin shrugs and holds out his hand. “I’ll lock up tonight. This’ll take some time.”   
  
Jeongin eyes the exit. Already he’s thinking of ways he can get out of here with Minho but before he can act on any of it, Hyunjin adds: “Innie, can you stay behind?”   
  
_Oh god._ Hyunjin’s pretty eyes pierce through him and Jeongin feels himself freezing. He’s pretty sure his frozen terror is clear on his face because that’s when Minho frowns.   
  
“Need help with something?” he asks. “No need to keep the baby in longer than he has to, I’ll stay behind.”   
  
_Oh thank you, thank you Minho,_ Jeongin is saying in his head. _Thankyouthankyouthankyou._   
  
“No need, hyung,” Hyunjin says and Jeongin wasn’t even aware he could sound so respectful and look so innocent. But that smile he shoots at Minho almost makes his face shine with pure innocence. “Innie owes me one anyway.”   
  
To Jeongin’s silent dismay, Minho nods and hands the key over. He picks up his bag and pats Jeongin’s shoulder on his way out. “Alright then,” he chirps. “Don’t work too late!”   
  
Then he’s gone. Jeongin hears the door click behind him and the second it does, Hyunjin’s at his side. Jeongin doesn’t even have a chance. Hyunjin’s arm wraps around his middle, his other bracing him against the counter he’s leaning on and Jeongin quickly finds himself chest to chest with him.   
  
Hyunjin’s pretty eyes are relentless as one eyebrow arches, unimpressed.   
  
“You’ve been avoiding me, Innie.”   
  
Jeongin wants to deny it but he can already tell there’s no point. Hyunjin can see right through him.   
  
“I’ll remind you that you’re the one who kissed me first,” Hyunjin continues and Jeongin squeaks as he can feel Hyunjin’s hand sliding gently from his middle down to his hip. “If you’re ignoring me just because of that, you should know that you suck at kissing.”   
  
There it is. Jeongin somehow finds the will to move again as he quickly shoves a laughing Hyunjin back a few steps. Seeing the psycho laugh manages to piss him off more and Jeongin can’t help but wonder what it means when Hyunjin can make him freeze in submission but the second he pisses him off, Jeongin’s submission goes out the window.   
  
He pushes Hyunjin back again, this time a little harder and feels a small thrill rush up his back when he sees Hyunjin actually stumble a bit.   
  
“I’ve never had any complaints,” he spits and he doesn’t know why he’s even bothering to justify this to Hyunjin.   
  
Hyunjin catches himself on the middle counter and giggles. “Oh of course you haven’t,” he teases. “Because you’re the one who topped all the time, right? You know the mental image of you topping anyone is hilarious.”   
  
Jeongin manages to kick him in the shin. He gets one pained grunt but when he tries again, Hyunjin dodges with grace Jeongin has never seen in anyone. He dodges, drops down and with one swift kick, he knocks Jeongin’s legs out from under him. Jeongin’s head just narrowly misses a collision with the corner of the counter as he falls to the floor and looks up at Hyunjin laughing at him.   
  
Arrogant prick.   
  
Jeongin quickly picks himself up and glares. “What did you keep me behind for?” he asks. “I wanna go home.”   
  
“Oh come on,” Hyunjin giggles and it’s disarming. He’s pissing Jeongin off, he’s more than capable of kicking him down to the floor and yet the way he’s giggling reminds Jeongin of a child. “You were just getting interesting, Innie. Don’t you find it tiring to be so meek and maknae-like all the time?”   
  
Jeongin narrows his eyes. Irritating. He’s so irritating and yet he continues. It’s like he gets a kick out of pissing Jeongin off.   
  
“Tell me,” Hyunjin says, his graceful body leaning against the counter as he lifts one hand to flick a stray blonde lock from his eyes. “When you had your little trysts in the broom closet or whatever you were doing back at the academy, did you have any kinks?”   
  
Jeongin fumes. “If you’re not going to keep me for any actual work, I’m going home.”   
  
He almost gets there too. He picks up his bag, throws it over his shoulder, walks towards the back door but before he can get there, Hyunjin grabs him, turns him around and slams his back into the door. The slam is so jarring that it blurs Jeongin’s vision for a precious few seconds.   
  
When his vision clears, Hyunjin is there. Chest to chest, one hand holding his wrist and the other around his waist as he presses his entire body into the door.   
  
Hyunjin is stunning up close. Stray locks of blonde fall over his dark eyes, the rest is tied up in half a ponytail. Jeongin can see little braids sewn in. The plush of his lips makes Jeongin shiver. They’re parted, he can feel his breathing against his face and his insides churn in a familiar mush of heat and desire. Stronger than he’s ever felt before for anyone else.   
  
Jeongin isn’t immune to a beautiful person, he’ll admit that easily. But there’s something else about Hyunjin. This isn’t just because he’s so pretty, it’s more than that.   
  
Jeongin wants him most when he’s angry with him and Hyunjin seems to get off on making Jeongin so angry.   
  
It’s Hyunjin who moves in first this time. Last time they kissed, it had been a spur of the moment thing from Jeongin. A clash of awkward lips, surprise and momentary response. This time Hyunjin kisses him so hard his lips might bruise. He sucks the air right from Jeongin’s lungs and all Jeongin can do is whimper and grab his shoulders.   
  
The butterflies in his stomach are fluttering relentlessly. His entire body feels like it’s about to ignite in flames but he can’t pull back from Hyunjin. He doesn’t want to.   
  
Hyunjin’s arm around him tightens and Jeongin squeaks as Hyunjin lifts him from the door and drags him away from it. Jeongin’s bag drops to the floor, neither notice as Jeongin’s hands slide into Hyunjin’s hair and Hyunjin’s other arm wraps around Jeongin’s waist to pick him up. Jeongin’s legs wrap around Hyunjin’s waist and for a moment he doesn’t even know where Hyunjin is carrying him until he finds his back pressed against another door.   
  
A colder, larger door. The cold against his back makes him gasp and the kiss breaks as he looks up to see he’s pressed against the freezer door.   
  
Hyunjin’s lips are on his neck. He’s biting hard and Jeongin’s cry of pain quickly turns to a moan when Hyunjin’s body presses against him, deliberately rubbing against a growing erection he hadn’t even realised was there.   
  
Suddenly Jeongin doesn’t care if he’s pressed against the freezer door. He doesn’t care about anything but tugging on Hyunjin’s hair and feeling him press against him again.   
  
Jeongin’s back rubs against the door. He’s quite helplessly trapped in Hyunjin’s hold, a slave to every move of Hyunjin’s hips and it takes him a moment longer than it should to realise what Hyunjin’s doing. Every move of his hips, every deliberate press against his crotch robs his mind of all coherent thought but when he looks down he almost loses it. Hyunjin is rubbing himself against Jeongin, dry humping him into the door and the look on his face, the evil smirk on his face is almost enough to finish Jeongin off then and there.   
  
“Shit…”   
  
“Come on, Innie,” Hyunjin teases as though he’s not as hard as Jeongin is. But he is, Jeongin can feel him. He can see the flush of pink in Hyunjin’s cheeks and although Hyunjin is trying to pretend he’s not as affected, Jeongin knows he is.   
  
Jeongin’s hands move down from his hair to his shoulders. His fingers dig in when Hyunjin thrusts against him and he has to bite a moan down at the rush he feels coursing through his veins. ‘Fuck you.”   
  
Hyunjin’s laugh is doing things to Jeongin’s sanity. He moves again and Jeongin whimpers, he’s not going to last long at this rate. Even if he closes his eyes, he can still hear Hyunjin’s breathing, he can still feel his body and his heat.   
  
Why is he doing this? To get back at Jeongin? To humiliate him? Jeongin throws his head back against the door and holds on tight to Hyunjin’s shoulders. He’s not going to last. He’s not going to make it. But he can at least pull this son of a bitch down with him.   
  
As with most things about Hyunjin, logic doesn’t always apply. Jeongin goes by instinct and opens his eyes to look at his face. He knows he’s a mess, he knows he’s on the verge and Hyunjin is feeding off that. The smirk on his face, the utter satisfaction upon seeing Jeongin falling apart in his arms…   
  
Jeongin’s hands unclench where they were holding onto Hyunjin’s shoulders. They slide up to Hyunjin’s face with such delicate tenderness it actually gives Hyunjin pause. Mild confusion blooms on his face but before he can really do anything about it, Jeongin holds his face in his hands and leans in to kiss him. It’s not like before. Not angry, not frustrated, not awkward or confused. It’s gentle and for the first time, he hears Hyunjin make a small noise, confused, almost a whimper.   
  
Hyunjin loses it first. His entire body shudders and Jeongin wraps an arm around his shoulder, kissing Hyunjin’s moan down and swallowing it whole. He follows soon after with a whimper but it’s short-lived. Victory bells are ringing in his head, he won whatever game they were playing. He’s still panting as he slides down the door and onto his own two feet.   
  
Hyunjin is panting against his shoulder. He still looks stunned. He hadn’t expected to go first and he hadn’t expected such a blatant show of tenderness right when it looked like he had everything under his control.   
  
Jeongin can’t help but take the moment to gloat.   
  
“I won.”   
  
Hyunjin lets out a breathless chuckle and shakes his head. “You’re playing dirty, Innie.”   
  
Jeongin wiggles out from between Hyunjin’s body and the freezer door. He composes himself quickly before heading back to the door to pick up his forgotten bag.   
  
When he turns around, Hyunjin is still leaning against the freezer door. He’s a mess. His hair is tangled all over the place, his cheeks are pink and his chest rises and falls with his breath he’s still trying to catch. Jeongin knows he doesn’t look much better, he’s going to need a shower to deal with the wetness in his pants but he still feels victorious.   
  
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he manages to say.   
  
Then he leaves, out the back door and into the chilly night air. The whole walk home, his brain is a mess, he almost can’t believe that even happened. His mind is filled with Hyunjin’s moans, his skin marred with Hyunjin’s bites and scent.   
  
When he finally does climb into bed, Hyunjin’s eyes haunt his dreams.   
  
\-   
  
“I have a job for you.”   
  
Hyunjin eyes Chan suspiciously but doesn’t speak up. It’s quite clear that Chan and Changbin know about Mogyul. Neither have brought it up - Hyunjin suspects this is because Jisung told them not to - but it’s obvious in the way they look at him. Like they’re trying to figure out if Hyunjin is still on their side.   
  
Good. Keep them guessing.   
  
“Alone?”   
  
Chan nods.   
  
“There’s a radio DJ who runs the morning shift,” Chan explains. “And lately he’s been….questioning my father’s leadership.”   
  
Hyunjin fights to keep a straight face. He knows for a fact that Chan doesn’t give a shit about this, Chan would be the first person to agree that his father is a corrupt, evil bastard. But for reasons that Hyunjin cannot possibly fathom, Chan has unwavering loyalty to his father - even though he knows his father would be the worst president South Korea has ever known.   
  
Loyalty to blood runs deep. Hyunjin is glad he can’t empathise with such a handicap.   
  
“Let me guess,” he speaks up. “He’s making loud proclamations that your father is unfit to run for presidency and your father wants him silenced.”   
  
“Do it loudly and he’ll become a martyr,” Chan warns. “The public aren’t stupid. If the guy who’s loudly questioning the Prime Minister’s authority suddenly turns up dead, it’s going to point right back to my father. They’ll recognise an impending dictatorship long before it happens.”   
  
Hyunjin raises an eyebrow. ‘So...you want him to go missing?”   
  
“No, that’ll draw attention to him,” Chan says, he leans back in his chair and takes a deep breath. “I want you to be….creative.”   
  
Hyunjin tilts his head. He can’t deny it, he’s intrigued. Chan has never given him this much freedom before. His orders usually roll around kidnapping someone or killing them quickly - usually with supervision from either Jisung or Changbin. He’s never been trusted to do one of these things, especially not alone and with the freedom to choose his method.   
  
“I’ll send you the name and address,” Chan promises and points a finger. “Kill only him. That man has kids and a wife, don’t touch them and don’t let them see you.”   
  
With a nod, Hyunjin turns on his heel to leave. Just as he reaches the door, Chan’s voice stops him in his tracks.   
  
“And Hyunjin. If you pull another stunt like the one you did with Mogyul, I will end you. Understand?”   
  
Hyunjin doesn’t turn around, he feels his blood run cold and can only nod once before leaving. As soon as the door closes behind him, he heads straight for the kitchen and looks in. Jeongin is working at the bench, chopping up vegetables with Felix.   
  
Now there’s a logical, very, very logical part of Hyunjin’s mind that knows he’s expected to do this mission alone. Go in, do it, go out. No fanfare, no noise, no witnesses. But as he leans against the wall to watch Jeongin work, his mind turns to the more illogical part of his head. The one full of bad ideas that anyone with a brain would recognise as such.   
  
He walks into the kitchen and smiles when he sees the muscles in Jeongin’s back stiffen once the other senses his presence. Good. Those are good survival instincts.   
  
“Innie,” he says, his tone surprisingly casual as he comes to the bench and leans in. “I need your hand with something.”   
  
Felix looks curious but Jeongin keeps his eyes down on the vegetables.   
  
Felix isn’t close enough to hear but Hyunjin catches Jeongin muttering under his breath. “Give yourself a hand.”   
  
“Don’t worry,” Felix says, good nature coming out again at the worst possible moment as he takes the knife from Jeongin’s hand. “I’ll take over here.”   
  
“It’ll take awhile,” Hyunjin warns and Felix shrugs.   
  
“It’s nearly closing time anyway, we don’t get that many customers this late at night.”   
  
Jeongin looks like he’s one second away from whining but he nods and shoots a glare at Hyunjin when no one else is looking.   
  
With a small sigh, Jeongin goes to grab his bag and takes off his apron.   
  
“Let’s go then.”   
  
\-   
  
The car ride is unbearably silent. Jeongin shifts uncomfortably in his seat and keeps his gaze out the window as Hyunjin drives. The other hasn’t said more than two words since they left the restaurant. Not a word on where they’re going, why and why the fuck he couldn’t just go alone.   
  
Asshole.   
  
“Can you at least turn on some music or something?” Jeongin asks after another ten minutes of suffocating silence. “And where the hell are we going?”   
  
Hyunjin doesn’t answer and when Jeongin turns to look at him, the other has his eyes on the road but every now and then, his eyes flick to his rearview mirror. Jeongin follows his gaze to see a black sedan following a few feet behind them.   
  
“Hyunjin?”   
  
“Fine, turn on some music,” Hyunjin finally relents but Jeongin is more concerned about the sedan now.   
  
“Where are we going?” he asks again. “Are we being followed?”   
  
Hyunjin sighs, he stops dutifully at a red light and finally turns to look at Jeongin. He points to the glovebox. “Open that.”   
  
Jeongin does and the only thing inside is a thick, barely used coil of silver duct tape. He pulls it out and looks over it with a frown.   
  
“If you don’t stop asking me questions, I’m going to put that over your mouth,” Hyunjin threatens.   
  
If it’s meant to scare Jeongin however, it falls miserably flat. Jeongin holds the tape to his chest and glares at Hyunjin. “The fuck you are!”   
  
There’s that smile again. The one that makes the butterflies in Jeongin’s stomach perform the fucking swan dance. He has to look away as Hyunjin drives ahead when the light turns green.   
  
“One day you might want me to strap you down with duct tape, Innie,” he says, his tone a lot lighter and more playful. Jeongin prefers it when he’s threatening - that at least, he can deal with.   
  
Jeongin still isn’t letting that duct tape go. He holds it to himself and kicks the glovebox closed. “Not fucking likely.”   
  
It’s almost 11pm. The longer Hyunjin drives, the more acutely aware Jeongin becomes of the empty night roads. He’s driving well out of Busan now and the further from the city he gets, the emptier the roads are until it’s just them and that black sedan behind them. Jeongin moves at one point to look over his shoulder but is abruptly stopped when Hyunjin grabs his shoulder and pushes him back down into his seat.   
  
“Don’t look.”   
  
“How can I fucking ignore it? We’re being followed.”   
  
“Yeah. And the first rule when you’re being followed is not to turn around in your seat and gawk at them through the back window,” Hyunjin scolds as though he’s talking to a three year old. “Might as well just tattoo ‘murder me please’ on your forehead.”   
  
Jeongin frowns. He should be scared. He’s been followed on the road before. There was this one time in Seoul, he was driving with a friend and some crazy stalker followed them for a good hour. They kept driving because they were afraid to stop and let the guy actually hurt them but they drove around the whole city trying to lose him. Jeongin had been terrified, sitting in the passenger seat, on the phone to his father as he tried to describe the car.   
  
Now he’s being followed again. Same situation but this time, he’s not afraid.   
  
He glances at Hyunjin. The other has his hair tied up again, stray blonde locks curtaining his pretty face. Hyunjin is wearing a long sleeve white button up shirt that looks a little too formal for him. His pants are normal black jeans and converse sneakers. It’s a plain look but somehow he manages to look breathtakingly stunning anyway.   
  
Whatever’s following them in that car cannot be as dangerous as Hyunjin and maybe that’s why Jeongin doesn’t feel afraid.   
  
They drive for another thirty minutes. Hyunjin keeps glancing at the car through the rearview mirror but it stays a safe distance away from them. They’re just nearing a rural town when Hyunjin suddenly makes a left and pulls up along the side of the road.   
  
Jeongin’s eyes widen. “Wha-why are you pulling over?” he asks.   
  
Sure enough, the sedan behind them is parking too. Still a safe distance, but it stops when they do.   
  
“Stop looking at it,” Hyunjin warns.   
  
Jeongin looks around instead. They’re in the middle of nowhere. There’s a sign for a town just a little down the road but right here, there’s nothing. Nothing but dark fields, no lights and an empty road save for the two cars.   
  
“Hyun-”   
  
Warm lips. Hyunjin’s hands hold Jeongin’s face and for a clear moment, Jeongin can’t form a single coherent thought. When he feels Hyunjin’s tongue on his lip, he gasps and pulls back far enough to grab Hyunjin’s shirt.   
  
“What the fuck?!” he splutters. “We’ve got a stalker behind us and you want to fuck?!”   
  
Hyunjin’s smile is doing weird things to him and Jeongin wants to look away but he can’t. Hyunjin is still holding his face.   
  
“Let’s give them a show.”   
  
“Let’s fucking not!” Jeongin squeaks angrily. He tries to pull back, he hits Hyunjin’s chest but the other just laughs and pulls him closer. Jeongin feels his lips against his temple, his forehead, in his hair and he rips a fist free to batter it against Hyunjin’s chest.   
  
“Get off me you fucking exhibitionist!” he tries to scream.   
  
Finally, Hyunjin pulls back. Just far enough to look at him properly and Jeongin doesn’t realise up until now that breathing is a lot harder. With one kiss, Hyunjin had stolen the air from his lungs. Jeongin’s cheeks burn, his body feels like it’s on fire and he hates every reaction the other pulls from him.   
  
Because that means fucking in a car whilst someone is most definitely watching isn’t completely off the table for him.   
  
“Innie,” Hyunjin speaks and finally his tone is serious. Quiet, but serious. “The guys behind us will go away if we do something they don’t wanna watch.”   
  
That makes Jeongin stop. He frowns and it doesn’t make sense but then none of this does.   
  
“Who’s following us?”   
  
Hyunjin just shakes his head, which Jeongin interprets as an ‘I don’t know’.   
  
It’s at this point that he notices how short of breath Hyunjin is too. In the dim light of the car, he can see the flush of his cheeks, the wide set of his eyes. Ploy or not, kissing Jeongin affected him too. Just like last time. As much as Hyunjin likes to take control and he really can, he’s not immune to what Jeongin does to him.   
  
It makes a thrill rush down Jeongin’s spine at the thought. He can see how much Hyunjin wants him just by looking into his eyes and the way Hyunjin looks at him makes Jeongin feel wanted. Like he’s the only person in the world worth wanting. It’s a strangely powerful and simultaneously helpless feeling.   
  
The car behind them hasn’t moved. The lights are off but it’s still there. Jeongin finds himself caring less as he leans in to catch Hyunjin’s lips and he doesn’t miss the small sound the other makes as his fingers slide into Hyunjin’s hair and pull it free from its ponytail.   
  
It’s awkward at first. They’re both leaning over the gear in the middle, hands grabbing each other, pulling each other closer without actually leaving their seats. Jeongin’s mind has long turned off and Hyunjin can’t seem to get him close enough. His kisses are heated and bruising, his tongue relentless and his hands pull at Jeongin’s uniform until the fabric nearly rips.   
  
He hears Hyunjin mutter a quiet ‘fuck’ under his breath and suddenly Hyunjin’s seat moves back, allowing enough space for him to grab Jeongin and drag him onto his lap. Jeongin moves without hesitation, it’s still an awkward shift but he can’t pull away from Hyunjin.   
  
When he slides onto Hyunjin’s lap, his thigh brushes against a hardness in Hyunjin’s pants that makes the blonde swear again and bite Jeongin’s bottom lip.   
  
Jeongin’s hands shake. They’re pushing Hyunjin’s shirt up until it’s no longer tucked in. His fingers slide along the buttons, shaking as he pushes each one out with slight difficulty. His hand slips onto the first patch of skin he finds and Hyunjin’s hand slides down to hold his waist. His hips are moving up to meet Jeongin’s thigh, hardness pushing against him and Hyunjin’s body is like a furnace.   
  
Jeongin is panting. He’s hard too, uncomfortably so but he can’t straddle Hyunjin here, there’s no room. It’s not a satisfying position at all for either of them but they can’t pull away from each other.   
  
That’s when Hyunjin’s hand lands on Jeongin’s lap and slips up to undo his belt. Jeongin can’t help but moan, his face slipping down to hide in Hyunjin’s neck as long, talented fingers finally slip into his pants, underneath his underwear and grasp him.   
  
“Fucking shit,” Jeongin hisses. He’s gripping Hyunjin’s shoulder with one hand, the headrest of the seat with the other and he squirms, trying to find the best friction against Hyunjin’s hand. It’s not enough, his pants aren’t pulled down far enough and Hyunjin can only hold him but he has no space to move his hand.   
  
“Backseat,” Hyunjin mutters but it sounds more like a gasp, like he’s seconds away from losing his mind too.   
  
Jeongin doesn’t waste time. He climbs off Hyunjin and scrambles through to the backseat. Once he gets there, he frantically pulls at his pants as he hears Hyunjin pull the drivers seat up and climb over to join him.   
  
Hyunjin doesn’t hesitate at all, he pushes Jeongin onto his back and climbs over him. Jeongin wants to protest but when Hyunjin’s lips nibble and bite at his neck, all he can do is hold his shoulders and squirm beneath him.   
  
Hyunjin’s hands are moving. His mouth is marking, biting, bruising but his hands are pulling Jeongin out of his pants and underwear with surprising speed and skill. His hand grasps Jeongin’s weeping cock and the other nearly screams.   
  
\-   
  
Changbin, being a man of mercurial temperament, has a lot of hobbies. One thing Jisung has learnt over the years is that Changbin never sticks to just one hobby. He jumps, whim to whim on what interests him at any given time.   
  
One of his hobbies was cars and as a result, he has about three of them. The one he uses the least is the one Hyunjin has never seen and thus was safe to follow him with. The black sedan.   
  
Jisung and Changbin sit in the front, lights off, watching Hyunjin’s car bounce as he and Jeongin climb into the back.   
  
“I didn’t know he was seeing Innie,” Jisung mutters to himself.   
  
Changbin doesn’t say anything. He’s sitting in the drivers seat, watching curiously as the two figures in the back grab at each other.   
  
Jisung shifts in his seat. They were told to follow Hyunjin to make sure he did his job but it’s quite clear that he has other things to do tonight.   
  
“Binnie,” he says, drawing the others attention. “We should go. He’s not gonna get himself in trouble tonight.”   
  
“I was just…” Changbin tilts his head, his eyes watching the two going at it. “...thinking. About Fe.”   
  
Jisung somehow manages not to roll his eyes. He looks back at the two in the car and shakes his head. “You see Innie and Hyunjin having sex and you think about Felix?” he asks, a little amused. “Seriously, how long are you going to go on with this quiet crush of yours? Just tell him already.”   
  
“He’s got enough on his plate right now without me adding to it,” Changbin huffs, a little annoyed. “And besides, what’s the deal with Chan marrying that psycho bitch? We could make her disappear.”   
  
“No, we couldn’t, she’s untouchable,” Jisung reminds him dully. “She’s a rich heiress with a family who would most definitely come after Chan if something ever happened to her.”   
  
Changbin growls. He leans back in his seat and takes a deep breath. “I just hate this. I don’t want to see Chan marry her, I’d rather put a bullet in her head myself and take the fall for it. Fuck Chan’s father.”   
  
There, Jisung can agree. None of them can understand Chan’s loyalty to that man. But then again, none of them have parents.   
  
Still, Chan’s loyalty to his father borders on pure insanity. He knows damn well his father will be the worst thing to ever happen to South Korea, he knows his father is an ambitious and selfish man and yet still he’ll do as he asks.   
  
What kind of twisted loyalty is that?   
  
“Really, we should get out of here,” Jisung suggests. “I’ve got Minho waiting at home and I don’t exactly wanna see Hyunjin getting it on with Innie.”   
  
With a deep sigh, Changbin nods and turns the keys in the ignition. He pulls out onto the road and does a U-turn back to Busan.   
  
\-   
  
Hyunjin collapses into Jeongin’s chest to catch his breath. Underneath him, Jeongin is a mess, his breathing is ragged, chest rising and falling as he tries to gasp for air. Between them is a mess of sweat and cum on both their hands, pants pulled halfway down and shirts pushed up as far as they can go.   
  
Jeongin stares up at the ceiling. Tufts of Hyunjin’s hair tickle his chin but he can’t be bothered moving. Instead his arm rests over Hyunjin’s back as he flicks his eyes to the window and watches the stars in the sky.   
  
“I think…” Hyunjin finally manages once he has enough air in his lungs to speak, “...they’re gone.”   
  
Jeongin shakes his head. He’d honestly forgotten about the other car. His body is a mess right now, he feels bruises from Hyunjin’s mouth, his teeth and his hands. Despite that, he feels good. A good kind of exhausted. It’s not the full monty of course, but Hyunjin has talented hands.   
  
“When we finally do fuck for real, that’ll be interesting,” Hyunjin giggles breathlessly.   
  
“Why?”   
  
“Because you’re kind of a demon,” Hyunjin replies innocently. He pushes Jeongin’s shirt up and bites at his nipple, causing the younger to squeak and squirm beneath him. “I’m going to have bruises on my neck.”   
  
“You won’t be the only one,” Jeongin mutters and finally, some energy seeps back into him as his body relaxes and feels the sting of Hyunjin’s attentions over the last hour.   
  
“Now what?” Jeongin asks after a moment. “Did you really just drive me one hour out of Busan just to molest me in the backseat of your car?”   
  
That makes Hyunjin laugh and Jeongin wishes he didn’t like the sound as much as he does.   
  
“No, I really do have something to do,” he promises. “I just knew someone was going to follow me. Hence the need for you.”   
  
Jeongin frowns. “Oh, so I was the distraction?”   
  
“Correct.”   
  
Jeongin isn’t sure how he feels about that. He can feel slight disappointment but the majority isn’t surprised. Why wouldn’t a psychopath like Hyunjin use him like this? Why did he let him?   
  
Hyunjin climbs off him and pulls his pants back up. As he does, Jeongin takes the opportunity to lean down and pick up his underwear from where it’s almost hiding under the front passenger seat. Hyunjin climbs back into the front and as he starts the car, Jeongin is awkwardly squirming his legs back into his pants with the limited space of the backseat.   
  
The car lurches forwards and Jeongin almost falls off the seat. He catches himself with one hand on the back of the drivers seat as he pushes himself into a sitting position and fixes his belt.   
  
“Where are we going?”   
  
Silence. Hyunjin drives ahead and Jeongin can’t help but glare at the back of his head. He doesn’t bother climbing into the front. Not now that Hyunjin’s driving, he might make them crash.   
  
The sleepy rural neighbourhood is full of quiet houses. The only light comes from the streetlights and the occasional automatic porch light as Hyunjin’s car rolls quietly by. He’s going at a snails pace, his eyes scanning the houses until he finally comes to a stop in front of one.   
  
Jeongin observes the house. There’s nothing special about it. It almost looks like one of those suburban houses one might see in a 1950’s American show. Complete with the front lawn, the gate, the tall, two-storey building one would never see in the heart of Seoul.   
  
Hyunjin turns to look at him. His eyes are dark and it gives Jeongin pause as he senses the air change suddenly. Hyunjin is serious but this is something else too. Something Jeongin hasn’t met yet.   
  
“Stay here.”   
  
He doesn’t give Jeongin the chance to argue - not that he would anyway. Jeongin watches as Hyunjin climbs out of the car and walks around to pop the trunk open. Jeongin turns in his seat, he can’t see what Hyunjin is doing but when the blonde closes the trunk, Jeongin can see him tucking something into the back of his pants. Was that a gun?   
  
He comes around to Jeongin’s side of the car and knocks on the window. When Jeongin rolls it down, Hyunjin takes something out of his pocket and hands it to him.   
  
It’s heavy, smooth leather. Jeongin looks down to see it’s a switchblade knife and his eyes widen in alarm.   
  
“Here’s the rules,” Hyunjin says quietly. “You don’t get out of this car. You don’t make a single noise. You climb into the drivers seat and wait for me. Get out your phone.”   
  
Jeongin is too dumbfounded to disobey. Once he unlocks the screen, Hyunjin takes the phone from him and sets it to timer. He flicks the dial to ten minutes and as it starts counting down, he hands the phone back to Jeongin.   
  
“If I’m not back in ten minutes, leave without me.”   
  
To say Jeongin is alarmed and concerned would be an understatement. He stares at Hyunjin and feels his blood freezing.   
  
“What the fuck is going on?”   
  
“Roll up the window and get into the drivers seat,” Hyunjin tells him as he pushes away from the car and starts making his way to the gate. “Move it, Innie.”   
  
Jeongin stares and for a helpless moment, he can’t do anything but watch as Hyunjin vaults over the gate and quietly makes his way towards the house without a sound. It’s only when Hyunjin’s form disappears around the side of the house that Jeongin finally realises what he’s supposed to do and he rolls the window up first.   
  
He then climbs up to the front, taking great care not to bump the horn as he sits in the drivers seat and looks at the keys still in the ignition.   
  
The blade is heavy in his hands. The timer ticks down agonizingly slow as silence begins to envelope the car.   
  
It’s the longest ten minutes of Jeongin’s life. Hyunjin’s warnings were so serious that Jeongin keeps looking around, expecting something like a zombie to jump up and attack the car at any moment. There aren’t even any crickets outside, not even the rustle of wind, not a single sound and it’s suffocating.   
  
Jeongin thinks he hears something. A quiet snap and he looks out to the other side of the road. The houses over there are quiet, dark, everyone should be asleep.   
  
Then the car bounces, the trunk pops open and Jeongin just barely manages to stifle a scream as he whips around to see the lid of the trunk shadowing the back window. Something heavy lands inside and Jeongin is almost paralyzed with fear.   
  
Then the trunk closes, Hyunjin’s face appears and Jeongin almost sags with relief as he watches the other smile and come around to open the passenger door and climb in.   
  
“Done.”   
  
Jeongin whacks his arm immediately. “You asshole! I thought someone was going to attack me! Why didn’t you warn me before you opened the trunk?!”   
  
“You seemed distracted,” Hyunjin giggles, a stark contrast to his earlier seriousness. It’s gone now, replaced instead with a smile. “Can you drive?”   
  
“Of course I can drive,” Jeongin sniffs, offended.   
  
“Well then, you drive us back,” Hyunjin suggests. “I could use some shut-eye.”   
  
“What did you do?” Jeongin can’t help but ask. He points to the back of the car. “What did you put in the trunk?”   
  
“If you wanna find out, I can put you in the trunk with it,” Hyunjin offers with a playful smile. “Still got that duct tape?”   
  
“Fuck you.”   
  
“Later, Innie,” the blonde promises as he pushes his seat back and lies back with an obnoxious grin. “I’ll get you some flavoured condoms if you prefer?”   
  
Jeongin growls but he gives up on the trunk as he starts the car up and pulls away from the curb.   
  
The car drives quietly out of the rural neighbourhood. None of its residents wake, none notice the strangers leave.   
  
Tomorrow morning, the sleepy, quiet rural neighbourhood will be swarming with police. Neighbours will be peering over yellow tape, desperate to catch a glimpse of the body being rolled out towards the ambulance and the traumatised children who found her. Detectives will scratch their heads, desperately looking for clues into the sudden disappearance of radio DJ Kim Hwarang - the very man gagged, bound and stuffed in the trunk of Hyunjin’s car.


	7. Chapter 7

When Jeongin comes in for his shift on Monday, Felix is way too excited. He barely takes one step towards the workbench before Felix grabs his arm and pulls him aside.   
  
“Hyunjin is in deep shit,” Felix says, his voice hushed as though someone might be listening in. “Deep, deep, deep shit.”   
  
“Wait, what?” Jeongin blinks and his mind has to wrench itself to the conversation from the thinking he’d been doing before he stepped foot in the restaurant.   
  
The night before keeps playing over and over in his head. The sound of Hyunjin’s moans, his grasping hands that left bruises, his bites that left marks all over Jeongin’s neck….well that’s one thing but another he can’t stop thinking about is whatever Hyunjin was doing when he left Jeongin alone in the car.   
  
Jeongin wishes he’d have looked. He wishes he’d have pushed more but Hyunjin had been quite adamant about leaving it well alone. In the moment, Jeongin had no choice but to obey but in the aftermath, all he has is regret. That could have been a chance to find something, instead he’s left blind again.   
  
“So, Chan called Hyunjin over last night,” Felix says, sparkles in his eyes as he seems to enjoy this round of gossip. “And oh fuck, the screaming I heard. Chan never screams.”   
  
Jeongin raises an eyebrow, he can’t imagine Hyunjin screaming either. He’s seen the other cocky, cold and silent but never heated and screaming.   
  
“Apparently he asked Hyunjin to do something and Hyunjin totally fucked it up,” Felix continues, unconcerned with the confusion in Jeongin’s eyes. “I don’t know what it was about exactly but it must have been important.”   
  
“Where is Hyunjin?” Jeongin asks. “Is he coming in today?”   
  
“Doubt it, he and Chan headed out somewhere this morning,” Felix shrugs happily. “Binnie took me to work today.”   
  
Questions. All Jeongin has are questions that, frustratingly enough, have no answer. When Seungmin wanders in, Felix bounces off to him to tell him about it too but Jeongin is left to think. Could Chan’s request have had anything to do with what Hyunjin did? Whatever he put in the car?   
  
If only Jeongin knew where the hell they even were last night but Hyunjin hadn’t told him and the night had been so dark. He hadn’t even seen a sign.   
  
He bites his lip and glances over at Seungmin and Felix chatting away. Chan and Hyunjin are not in today and Jeongin’s options of finding out what on earth they’re doing are non-existent. But with Chan and Hyunjin out of the way, one door has opened, Jeongin thinks as he flicks his eyes to the freezer.   
  
Hyunjin keeps stopping him whenever he tries to snoop and Jeongin isn’t suicidal enough to rouse Chan’s suspicions. But with both of them out, that means Jisung will have his hands full on the floor and Changbin will manage the main office. They’ll be shorthanded enough and to add to the miraculousness of it all, Jeongin is on lockup duty. There will be no one there to stop him snooping around.   
  
Of course there’s always the chance someone could walk in. Maybe Chan and Hyunjin will come back after hours and they’ll expect the restaurant closed and locked already but Jeongin won’t get a better chance than this. He needs answers, he knows he’s in deep, deep shit but he needs to find out just how deep it is.   
  
Then he can assess whether or not to try running back to Seoul to inform his father in the hopes that the man will do the right thing and not get the both of them killed - or disappear for good to save his own skin.   
  
It’s tempting. It’s so tempting. If he could find a way to change his name, board a plane somewhere to Europe and hope that no one would ever find him, he’d be safe.   
  
How hard is it to learn German or Norwegian anyway? Can’t be harder than working around a bunch of suspicious people with their fingers far too deep in the police and South Korean politics.   
  
He gets to work, single-minded determination and bravery popping up out of nowhere to push him forward. With Hyunjin off the floor, Minho’s famous temper comes out. Jeongin’s heard of it but he’s never seen it until now. With customers filling the floor and the kitchen staff only working on three, Minho takes over the floor when Jisung needs a hand and he keeps barking orders at the kitchen.   
  
Felix works without complaint, he looks more or less used to Minho’s temper but Seungmin can’t help but grumble every time Minho sticks his head in the kitchen to ask why they’re not working fast enough.   
  
After the fifth time, Seungmin turns around and throws a spatula at Minho. It narrowly misses his head and hits the door instead.   
  
“You wanna come in here and do this?!” Seungmin snaps at him, beyond irritated and probably a little hangry. “Because I will do your job and I’ll do it without all the bitching and moaning.”   
  
Jeongin jumps, nerves standing on edge as he senses the fight brewing but Felix simply reaches over and pats his arm. A silent command to keep working and don’t intervene. So he does, he keeps his head down even when Minho picks up the spatula and throws it back - this one hits Seungmin’s shoulder. He keeps his head down even when they begin fighting in earnest and the only time he looks up is when Jisung finally comes into the kitchen, picks Minho up and carries him out of there whilst completely ignoring the way Minho’s hissing and spitting curses at Seungmin.   
  
It reminds Jeongin vaguely of a fight between a cat and dog - if the cat and dog were totally not trained to live with each other.   
  
With them shorthanded, the day is long - longer for Jeongin who spends the entire day thinking through what he’s going to do when no one’s looking. When at last the final customer leaves and they clean up, the staff begin leaving one by one. Changbin turns up at the back door for Felix - apparently it’s still not safe for Felix to go anywhere alone. Jisung takes Minho home, making nauseating promises of hot baths, petals and a fuckton of lube.   
  
Seungmin just looks tired as he waves goodbye and leaves after them.   
  
Then, finally alone, Jeongin puts the last dish away and slowly turns around to set his eyes on the massive freezer door.   
  
The fact that there is no video surveillance in the kitchen is a small blessing. He has to be quick, he doesn’t know when or if anyone will come but he needs something. Anything.   
  
He pushes himself off the bench and walks across the kitchen. The door is as heavy as ever as he hauls it open and stands before the cold air that wafts out at him. The inside is lit, blue light casting long shadows past the shelves of meat that line the room.   
  
Jeongin takes a crate of meat and puts it on the floor, wedged against the door as a makeshift doorstop. He kicks it a few times to make sure it’s not going anywhere and when he’s sure he’s not going to be locked in here to freeze, he slowly steps inside.   
  
Usually in the morning, they don’t go that far into this freezer. Most of the meats they’ll ever need are usually in the first few shelves closest to the door. Jeongin never questioned who drags the meat closer, it’s always within arms distance of the door even though there are other shelves much deeper in the room.   
  
There’s a persistent hum coursing through the walls. The lights or perhaps the freezer itself. Jeongin checks over the meat packages but all of them have that same label. RACHA. He’d done a search earlier on his phone and an even more thorough one at home on his computer. Racha didn’t bring up any meat packing companies. It didn’t bring up anything relevant actually, which told Jeongin two things.

  1. Racha was a bullshit company name for a company that didn’t exist.
  2. (More unlikely) the company simply didn’t have a website.



He leaves the meat alone and looks around. The inside of the freezer is a lot larger than he’d originally thought. The shelves and trays are spread out all over the place but the room itself is easily half the size of the kitchen. Perhaps the size of his bedroom.   
  
But all he sees are shelves, tray towers, meat placed on each shelf. Shrink-wrapped with the same label slapped on top. He’s almost disappointed until he looks down and recognises the latch of a handle.   
  
A trapdoor? Is that what that’s called? Jeongin can feel the chill of the air as he heads over and leans down to pull the door open.   
  
It’s heavy, the latch is freezing but it gives way to show a ladder leading down, down, down into pitch black darkness. Jeongin swears under his breath as he flicks on the flashlight on his phone to cast a light down.   
  
There’s a floor, somewhere far below. He can see the tiles glinting up at him and he suddenly feels apprehension. He can hear his heartbeat thudding relentlessly in his ears as fear, real fear, takes over him.   
  
For the first time since he’s gotten here, this is something. An actual clue. It’s not normal for any restaurant to have a secret trapdoor in their freezer, especially one like this. He knows. Yet in the face of something any decent policeman would fall over themselves for, he finds himself hesitant. Fearful. All the things his father would slap him for.   
  
He takes a deep breath - something they used to tell him to do back at the academy - and steels himself. Somehow the first step is a lot colder than the freezer itself. A chill rushes up his spine as he descends, hands shaking with each rung he grasps.   
  
When his feet hit the tiled floor, he shines the flashlight on his phone into the darkness. The light finds a switch on the wall and when he flicks it on, the room lights so suddenly he has to blink to adjust his sight.   
  
When at last, he opens his eyes, all he sees are bodies. Lines and lines of bodies hanging from meathooks attached to the ceiling. They’re naked, hanging like butchered pigs with the hooks pierced through their ankles. There’s a faint scent in the air, masked mostly by the chill of the freezer. These bodies are frozen, their heads removed, their arms bound to their backs.   
  
Jeongin’s stomach lurches, he stares in horror at the lines and lines of bodies. At least twenty that he can see and many more way in the back. Then in a clearing in the middle of the room is a single wooden chair.   
  
Jeongin inches closer, he doesn’t want to come anywhere near those bodies and in fact, this is more than enough evidence to catch the attention of the police.   
  
But what then? A voice in his mind questions. How far does Chan’s reach go? Can he really sweep evidence like this under the rug?   
  
A closer inspection of the chair reveals blood stains in the wood. There’s a drain underneath the chair, clogged and stained with dark red and it doesn’t take a genius to deduce what this chair is used for.   
  
Jeongin’s stomach lurches again, he pulls his phone out and starts taking pictures. The shutter noise on his phone echoes far too loudly as he takes incriminating photos of headless bodies, of the hooks hanging from the ceiling, of the chair.   
  
That’s when he hears it. Just as he takes the last picture he hears a distant noise up above. A door, footsteps - Chan.   
  
“Fucks sake Binnie, did you leave the door open again?!”   
  
Jeongin almost drops his phone. His blood freezes, he can hear his heartbeat thudding madly in his ears. Frantic, he looks around and spots racks of shelves lined against the wall. Just like the freezer above. The shelves are lined with what he now understands is human meat. Packaged and ready with the RACHA sticker plastered to its side.   
  
There’s nowhere else to hide, Jeongin rushes for the shelves as he hears steps descending the ladder. The tiles are freezing but he barely feels it over his own fear as he crawls down as low as he can get and wriggles himself underneath the lowest shelf.   
  
He tucks in his hands and feet just as he hears the sound of boots hitting the tiles. Jeongin holds his breath and watches. One, two….three pairs of boots.   
  
“I didn’t leave the light on,” says a voice. Changbin.   
  
“Well who the fuck did?” Chan’s voice sounds, annoyed as he looks around the room. “You mentioned you got stoned last night, this wouldn’t be the first time you’ve left the lights on.”   
  
Changbin groans. “Well fuck, maybe I did, I don’t know.”   
  
Jeongin stares at the boots. Chan and Changbin, who’s the third person who can walk into a room like this without vomiting?   
  
“Bring him in,” Chan commands and the third pair of boots leaves for a moment.   
  
When he comes back, he drags something in with him. Jeongin’s stomach clenches as he recognises a body, a bloody hand trailing along the tiles, leaving a trail in its wake. It’s brought to the chair and, once seated, is bound tightly to it.   
  
Changbin makes a noise, a huff of disapproval and kicks the leg of the chair. “What’s this pigfucker’s name?”   
  
“Does it matter?” Chan sniffs. “Stupid prick spoke out against my father, did he really think himself untouchable?”   
  
“Perhaps he did,” Changbin notes and Jeongin cranes his head slightly.   
  
Who is the third person? Who’s in the chair?   
  
There’s a sickening sound, the sound of a blade against skin and Jeongin almost jumps back when blood falls from the chair and splashes onto the tiles. It slides quickly into the drain but some begins to slip and seep across the once shining tiles. Jeongin watches, horrified as the blood slides towards where he hides under the shelves. It’s still warm when it hits his arm and encompasses it agonizingly slowly.   
  
He bites his finger to hold in a whimper and watches, terrified as the boots move around the tiles.   
  
“Fuck Han, little warning next time,” Changbin complains and Jeongin’s attention turns to the third pair. So it’s Chan, Changbin and Jisung.   
  
“Hey, what happened with Hyunjin?” Jisung asks as Changbin grabs the body to move it to one of the steel tables. “Did you sort it out with him?”   
  
“Yeah, and you fuckers shouldn’t have left him alone,” Chan grumbles.   
  
“We thought he wasn’t gonna...he was fucking Innie in the backseat,” Changbin explains quickly. “We didn’t think he was gonna do anything that night.”   
  
Chan sighs. “You two are idiots. He drove all the way out of Busan, parked near where the guy lives and fucked Innie because he knew you two were watching and you did exactly what he was banking on - you left him alone.”   
  
“...sorry Chan.”   
  
Jeongin can feel the blood cooling against his skin. He closes his eyes for only a moment and tries to calm himself but he’s shaking so hard. His heartbeat is thundering so loudly it’s a wonder no one else can hear it.   
  
“Hyunjin needs to be kept under control,” Chan says. “We’re too close. My father is making political moves and we can’t afford another fuckup. Our job - our only job - is to eliminate all his enemies either by coercion, money, murder, I don’t give a fuck.”   
  
“Well then why do we have Hyunjin in the first place?” Jisung speaks up. Jeongin can hear a ripping noise but he can’t see what’s happening. It sounds like someone ripping leather to pieces.   
  
“Because he’s effective, he’s cold and he already knows too much,” Chan explains. “And I can’t afford to get rid of anyone right now. The last thing my father needs is attention on these restaurants. We continue doing as we’re doing and find a way to keep Hyunjin under control. It’s not impossible.”   
  
“What about Innie?”   
  
Jeongin almost whimpers.   
  
“What about him?”   
  
“Well Hyunjin did fuck him....”   
  
“Not yet, I’m still not sure about him,” Chan says and Jeongin’s stomach is wrapping itself in knots. He’s legitimately afraid he’s about to be sick all over the floor and reveal his hiding spot.   
  
“Binnie, I’ll finish wrapping him up,” Chan finally says after a moment. “Go back to mine and look after Felix. I left him with Minho and I don’t trust that guy not to dress Fe in cat-ears before I return.”   
  
“Felix with cat ears…” Changbin mutters quietly, as though intrigued by the idea.   
  
“Come on,” Jisung pulls him out and Jeongin watches two of the boots leaving the room.   
  
He listens to them climbing up the ladder and when their steps fade in the distance, the ripping sound starts again. Chan’s boots stay where they are and Jeongin now understands what he’s doing. He’s wrapping the body, he’s probably going to hang it up like all the others and he feels another lurch in his stomach at the thought.   
  
When the ripping noise stops, Chan’s boots click as he pulls away from the table and heads towards the shelves where Jeongin hides. Jeongin holds his breath when Chan’s boot comes too close to his face. Something in the shelves above tinkles and Jeongin squeezes his eyes shut.   
  
Then Chan turns around and heads back to the table. He puts something down and just as Jeongin starts to breathe again, Chan’s voice pierces the otherwise silent room.   
  
“Get out from under there before I make you, Innie.”   
  
His blood freezes, Jeongin’s eyes widen and he watches the boots coming back to him. How did he know? How did he know?! He wants to move but he can’t. He can only watch in helpless, petrified terror as Chan leans down, his hand appears and grabs Jeongin by the arm.   
  
It’s as though Jeongin weighs nothing. The strength with which Chan pulls him out, picks him up and dumps him on the chair in the middle of the room is astonishing.   
  
It takes a moment for Jeongin’s mind to catch up and by the time he realises he’s in the chair where a man was just killed, Chan is already wrapping the second rope around his right wrist.   
  
Oh god. He’s going to die right here. He’s going to be killed and wrapped up just like all the other bodies. His lungs kick into action, his arms and legs begin to shake helplessly against the restraints and he starts to scream. Terrified, nonsensical, as loud as he can. Chan flinches and finishes binding his hands and feet to the chair before reaching back and promptly sticking a rolled up piece of cloth into his mouth.   
  
“Shut up,” Chan snarls.   
  
Jeongin is crying, his screams are muffled and even more so when Chan grabs the duct tape from the shelves and wraps it over his mouth and the cloth.   
  
He’s going to die.   
  
He’s going to die.   
  
It’s all that runs through his head. His view is just narrow, tunnel-vision fear and all he can see is Chan and the instruments displayed on the table with the wrapped body. Will he be quick? Will he feel any pain or is Chan pissed off enough to make this hurt? He doesn’t want to die and he’d say so if he weren’t gagged. So all he can do is cry.   
  
His sight blurs, he sees Chan’s figure pick something up from the table but he’s crying too hard to see what it is. He tries to move but he’s bound and when he feels something cold and sharp against his neck, he gasps. This is it.   
  
His eyes open and his vision clears. Chan is standing in front of him, holding a knife to his throat. He can feel the sharp, serrated edge grazing his skin lightly. One move and he’ll bleed out all over the floor.   
  
He doesn’t dare breathe.   
  
“Here’s what’s going to happen now,” Chan speaks, voice eerily calm and eyes devoid of emotion. “I’m going to give you two options. One ends with you alive and the other, dead. Following me?”   
  
Jeongin can’t nod but his continued staring seems to be enough for Chan.   
  
His mind is racing. Just how much does Chan know? Does he know who he really is? Who his father is? Does he know that Hyunjin knows?   
  
“Option one,” Chan continues and Jeongin feels a strange sense of deja-vu. He’s certain he’s been in this position with Hyunjin. “You work for me. You do everything I tell you to do and you do it in secret. I’ll monitor your every move and if you take one step out of line, I’ll give you a slow and painful death.”   
  
Jeongin blinks.   
  
“Option two, refuse and you’ll end up on tomorrow’s menu.”   
  
Jeongin suddenly feels very, very sick. A sudden flashback hits his head like lightning. The meal he’d been prepared the day he’d been interviewed. The meal he’d been asked to identify. What was it he’d said it was? Veal?   
  
That wasn’t veal. He’d eaten a human. His stomach twists and he must look sick because Chan’s eyes grow wide. The blade is removed and Chan reaches forward to rip the duct tape off Jeongin’s face just in time for Jeongin to lean forward and vomit all over the floor.   
  
Chan’s chair skitters back as he jumps up onto his feet. Dodging just in time with a muttered curse.   
  
Jeongin leans forward and groans. Only one round comes out but god he feels so sick. His head spins harder and he can’t see straight anymore. His head is pounding and his stomach is still twisting so hard the pain shoots right through his nerves.   
  
“Fucks sake,” he hears Chan mutter. There’s a clang of metal as he drops the knife back on the table and a pause as he looks over the state of Jeongin again.   
  
“You know what? I’ll give you the night to think it through,” Chan finally decides. “Work for me or die. Painfully simple choice but you have the whole night to think about it.”   
  
No, Jeongin wants to plead. Don’t leave me here. Don’t leave me here!   
  
He can’t say anything, he can’t make a sound above a pathetic whimper and when he lifts his head to look, Chan is already at the ladder. He flicks the light off and the room is doused in pitch black. Jeongin whimpers, he can hear Chan climbing the ladder and he wants to scream, he wants to plead but there’s a lump in his throat.   
  
Chan leaves. The trapdoor closes after him and all that’s left is the sound of Jeongin’s breathing and the scent of death and vomit.   
  
Then and only then does he find the energy to scream.   
  
\-   
  
Jeongin isn’t sure how long he’s there. Surely one cannot survive an entire night in a walk-in freezer but he’s sure he’s sitting there in the pitch black cold for hours.   
  
When he finally hears the trapdoor opening again, he’s half out of his mind with lethargy and he’s long since lost feeling in his arms and legs. He should open his eyes, he should see who it is but his head won’t move where it’s hanging. If he weren’t tied to the chair, he’d have collapsed a long time ago.   
  
Hurried steps. Someone’s climbing down the ladder fast. Jeongin isn’t thinking clearly enough, everything’s slow.   
  
Then someone’s in front of him. Warm hands touching his wrists, pulling at the restraints until he falls forward into a warm chest. Arms wrap around him and Jeongin can only mumble weakly as he’s picked up and hauled over someone’s shoulder. He can’t see who, he loses consciousness before the person carries him to the ladder.   
  
\-   
  
When he wakes again, he’s in a room he’s never been in before. Warmth, slow, gentle warmth is coursing through his veins and it takes him a little longer than usual to think. He would panic if he weren’t so lethargic.   
  
He’s so warm. There’s something heavy on him and when he slowly lifts his head, he can see an arm wrapped around his chest. A leg tucked between his own, feet pressed against his and covered by two thick blankets. When he turns his head to the side, he recognises the pretty features of Hyunjin, fast asleep and pressed tightly to his side with both arms and legs wrapped around Jeongin’s body.   
  
It’s Hyunjin’s bedroom.   
  
He has pink curtains and posters of bands like Chase Atlantic and Linkin Park stuck to the wall with silver pins. There’s a desk right next to the bed with stacks of books and an open laptop with a technicolour save screen. There’s a rug on the floor in the shape of a large green leaf and vague carvings on the door.   
  
In the morning light, the pink curtains bathe the room in a warm glow of gold and pink and it’s not the first time Jeongin’s seen Hyunjin sleeping but he’s still not used to the sight. How beautiful this man can look when he’s not conscious and murderous.   
  
Was it him who carried him out of the freezer? How did he know he was down there? Does he know what Chan said? What will Chan do if Hyunjin took him without his permission?   
  
All these questions flick through Jeongin’s mind but flit away into nothingness the longer he gazes at Hyunjin’s face. For a blindingly perfect moment, Jeongin can’t feel the fear that numbed him all night. He can’t remember that he must have spent half a night with decapitated bodies, all he can focus on here and now is Hyunjin.   
  
Just in this moment, Jeongin feels warmth and safety like he’s never felt before. He slowly turns onto his side and Hyunjin makes a sleepy noise but doesn’t wake as Jeongin’s arms slide around him until they’re lying chest to chest. Jeongin’s forehead presses gently against Hyunjin’s and he can feel their breaths mingling.   
  
His heart is thundering in his chest but not out of fear. Out of something he can’t name. Doesn’t want to name.   
  
Then Jeongin falls asleep like that and the moment is gone.   
  
When he next wakes up, it’s much later in the day. The glow of the sunset lights the room and as he pushes himself up to sit, he spots Hyunjin sitting at the end of the bed, watching him.   
  
Words escape Jeongin but they don’t escape Hyunjin.   
  
“Innie,” Hyunjin says, his tone soft as ever and it would be comforting were it not for the dark look in his eyes. He’s pissed but Jeongin can’t tell who he’s pissed at yet. “Are you alright?”   
  
Jeongin looks down. His hands don’t have any lasting marks, neither do his legs. No frostbite, how long was he in that freezer? He doesn’t feel sick but there’s apprehension in the back of his mind. Fear of the unknown, too many questions unanswered. He suddenly feels like he’s been in the dark about everything since this entire stupid mission began and for what? Now it’s not a suspicion, he KNOWS Chan is behind the disappearances. He knows what’s happening to the missing people. He has proof on his-   
  
He pales and glances at his phone where it’s sitting on the desk.   
  
“Don’t bother,” Hyunjin says before he can mention anything. “I deleted the photos.”   
  
All the air leaves Jeongin’s lungs and he turns his gaze slowly to Hyunjin.   
  
“What about Chan?” He dares to ask.   
  
Hyunjin raises an eyebrow and Jeongin’s throat runs dry.   
  
“He told me you were in the freezer,” Hyunjin finally says after a moment. “And now you know. You’re not dumb, Innie. You know what that means.”   
  
Jeongin nods, numb. It would be different if he’d taken the photos and been able to escape but now that Chan is painfully aware that he knows about this, the amount of danger he’s in is mind boggling. He doesn’t even know if he’s going to make it to tomorrow.   
  
“Are you going to kill me?”   
  
“Why would I bother warming you up if I’m killing you later?” Hyunjin snorts. “And I just said you’re not dumb, I take it back.”   
  
Jeongin somehow feels the incredible urge to shrink in on himself. He resists and keeps his gaze on Hyunjin.   
  
“Then what’s going to happen to me?” he asks. “I can’t stand not knowing. Chan said he’d kill me-”   
  
“Chan gave you a choice,” Hyunjin corrects him. “And right now, Chan’s a little busy with his brat of a fiance, Felix and his father to bother much with you. Hence why he told me what you were up to.”   
  
Now Jeongin really does shrink.   
  
“Should have known you’d go poking around but now that you know, I can’t afford to let you out of my sight again, Innie,” Hyunjin continues as though Jeongin isn’t suddenly finding it hard to breathe. “This is bigger than you think it is. A couple of photos of headless bodies in a freezer isn’t going to be enough to bury any of this. You’re biting off more than you can chew, Innie.”   
  
Without his consent, Jeongin starts to feel something wet sliding down his cheek. He’s crying, his eyes widen in horror because he doesn’t want to cry in front of Hyunjin yet here he is and he can’t stop it.   
  
He hiccups and tries to block his lips but they keep coming and his lungs are tightening with fear and he can’t help but think of a rat caught in a trap and if the poor thing doesn’t die immediately, it must die slowly. Unable to move, broken bones, trapped. Like him.   
  
Hyunjin leans in. “Innie, Chan doesn’t know who your father is and we’re going to keep it that way.”   
  
His thumb, warm and gentle, wipes a tear off Jeongin’s cheek and Jeongin looks up to see Hyunjin sliding closer to him. For such an unpredictably dangerous man, Hyunjin’s hands shouldn’t be so soft and gentle but they are. They cup Jeongin’s face and spread warmth where they shouldn’t.   
  
Jeongin can’t help but lean into his hold, eyes fluttering a little.   
  
Then Hyunjin’s voice comes out barely a whisper. “It’ll be our secret.”   
  
His thumb slides gently over Jeongin’s bottom lip and Jeongin parts them automatically. If his eyes were open, he’d have seen the way Hyunjin’s own eyes dilated. He’d have seen an emotion that even someone as controlled as Hyunjin couldn’t hide.   
  
But his eyes are closed and he misses it but he doesn’t miss the choked sound Hyunjin makes when his tongue slides out to touch Hyunjin’s thumb.   
  
“Stay with me,” Hyunjin whispers.   
  
That’s when Jeongin’s mind and the last scraps of his sanity shut down. He’s so tired of this. Tired of the mind numbing fear of being with these people, tired of fearing for his life every single day. There’s no point. Hyunjin knows who he is, Chan knows that he knows the truth about the restaurant and in the midst of all of this Jeongin wants one moment of peace.   
  
Just one moment where he’s not feeling terrified or sick to his stomach.   
  
“Jeongin,” Hyunjin says, voice quiet but firm. “I need an answer.”   
  
Jeongin doesn’t answer. Instead his hands reach up, find Hyunjin’s shirt and pull him forward for a kiss. That’s answer enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo sorry it took me so long to update this! I can cite personal issues but the truth is that writing is my ultimate escape but has become incredibly difficult for a year now (ever since the pandemic started and everything changed)  
> However, we power through and stay safe because for now that's all we can do.
> 
> In the meantime I give you this chapter, I am not entirely satisfied with this chapter but if someone leaves me long enough to obsess and pick over a chapter, it'll never be updated. Hopefully it doesn't take me that long to pull the next chapter out of my head, don't wanna keep you waiting long.
> 
> As always, thank you so much for all your comments! They helped me power through this chapter and onto more important plot points ;)


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